They are so reassuring.

Bush's Doctrine for War
What will follow, his aides hope, is jubilation and a shift to an American administration accepted by Iraqis.

But as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, put it succinctly today, "that is not a sure shot." In moments of candor, even some of Mr. Bush's most senior national security aides say they have no idea what they will find after they lift the top off a dictatorship.

"If it's not post-war Japan ? if it's more like post-war Yugoslavia ? we will have a huge and expensive problem on our hands," one of those advisers conceded recently. "And I can't honestly tell you we are prepared for that, because there is no way to prepare for that."