Rebuilding Timetables

“Yesterday marked the six month anniversary of the liberation of Baghdad and the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime.” - GeorgeWBush.com Official Blog

Six months after the fall of Saddam Hussein, U.S. troops based in one of his former palaces in Tikrit say Washington will have to keep soldiers in Iraq for years, even decades, to keep it stable. But soldiers interviewed at the sprawling 4th Infantry Division base in Tikrit, Saddam’s hometown, say the U.S.-led invasion and almost daily attacks on U.S. troops are a price worth paying to bring democracy to Iraqi. They estimated that the United States would have troops in Iraq from three to as much as 20 years. - Ian Simpson

Our nation stays focused on the war on terror until it is won. We must reject distractions from that victory. The quagmire in Iraq is a distraction that the Bush administration, and the Bush administration alone, has created. - Bob Graham

With 9/11, the non-trinitarian world learned that it is possible to project its type of warfare to the developed world. After the impending humiliation in Iraq, what will happen? - John Robb

Italy surrendered Thursday, September 9th, 1943.

Securing a Peace Treaty was going to be a milestone for post-war Italy. Until it was completed Italy would not regain her sovereignty in foreign affairs. Also it was feared that Italy would be compelled to pay reparations. The Italian treaty was discussed by the four-power Council of Ministers meeting in London in the autumn of 1945 and again in Paris in the April-July 1946. The draft Treaty was presented to the Paris Peace Conference and finally approved at the end of the year. - The Peace Treaty

Germany surrendered Tuesday, May 8th, 1945.

The United States had the greatest interest in denazification and in the establishment of a liberal democratic system. Early plans, such as the Morgenthau Plan to keep Germans poor by basing their economy on agriculture, were dropped as the Soviet Union came to be seen as a threat and Germany as a potential ally. Britain had the least ambitious plans for its zone. However, British authorities soon realized that unless Germany became economically self-sufficient, British taxpayers would bear the expense of feeding its population. To facilitate German economic self-sufficiency, United States and British occupation policies soon merged, and by the beginning of 1947 their zones had been joined into one economic area—the Bizone. - The Establishment of Occupation Zones

Japan surrendered Wednesday, August 15th, 1945.

MacArthur pushed the government to amend the 1889 Meiji Constitution, and on May 3, 1947, the new Japanese constitution (often called the “MacArthur Constitution”) came into force. Constitutional reforms were accompanied by economic reforms, including agricultural land redistribution, reestablishment of trade unions, and severe proscriptions on zaibatsu. The relatively rapid stabilization of Japan led to a relaxation of SCAP purges and press censorship. Quick economic recovery was encouraged, restrictions on former zaibatsu members eventually were lifted, and foreign trade was allowed. Finally, in September 1951 fifty-one nations met in San Francisco to reach a peace accord with Japan. - World War II and the Occupation, 1941-52

Although hostilities came to an end in Sept., 1945, a new world crisis caused by the postwar conflict between the USSR and the United State—the two chief powers to emerge from the wa—made settlement difficult. By Mar., 1950, peace treaties had been signed with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland; in 1951, the Allies (except the USSR) signed a treaty with Japan, and, in 1955, Austria was restored to sovereignty. Germany, however, remained divide—first between the Western powers and the USSR, then (until 1990) into two German nations - Aftermath and Reckoning

It shouldn’t come as a shock that rebuilding Iraq will be, as many are predicting, long and costly. The same was true when Americans led the massive reconstruction efforts of Germany and Japan after World War II and South Korea in the 1950s. - Joyce Howard Price

But the issue that I haven’t seen discussed is what this means from the Turks’ perspective — and I think that one of the things it means is that the Turks think we’re winning. If the Turks expected Iraq to dissolve into the bloody quagmire that some media types and pundits are still claiming it is, I expect that they’d keep well out of things. - Glenn Reynolds

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Rebuilding Timetables

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