Iraq: The three trillion dollar war?

[Arrian]

They thought they could fight a cheap, precision war. Fine. They thought they could run a cheap, precision occupation. Not Fine.

Had the real costs of this thing (done properly with half a million troops or more) been presented from the get-go, it probably wouldn't have happened.

There was, therefore, quite an incentive to try to do it on the cheap.

-Arrian