Knowing that they couldn’t defeat the US forces on an open battlefield pretty much required the Iraqi forces to go to insurgency operations and the fact that no WMDs were used was a hell of good indicator that there weren’t any available, because they would have been the only hope to balance against US air power and armor.

US can win every battle, we just can’t win wars. The DoD was/is filled with people who think tactically, and damn few people who think strategically.

The wrong war, against the wrong enemy, with the wrong plan, executed by the wrong people … other than that everything was great.

One thing drummed into any commander or any military person that undertakes OCS is that “Hope is not an approved course of action!” You can only win by superior planning, and by never underestimating the opponent. Neither of which happened in Iraq, and Afghanistan, and which the USA has a history of doing (which is what you get when you allow the Politicians control your wars). As in Vietnam and elsewhere, they were no plans for any contingencies. The only plan was “Step one, followed by Step two, followed by Step three…” etc. Unfortunately, the planners forgot to coordinate and choreograph the plan with the Iraqis, so they didn’t stick to the plan. A real plan involves contingencies and failures. Unfortunately, Rummy et al were unable to clone 100,000 copies of John Wayne or the Terminator, who always wins against great odds (at least, in Hollywood).

It was never going to be anything other than a dismal failure.

“When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”