Atheist Heroes?

[Reforged]

The level of civilian casualties, due to shock and awe, is and was lower than would be expected of many other possible plans we could have went with.  There simply is no con to winning a war decisively and quickly.  It's good for -everybody-, even the enemy.  Do you see what happens when it gets drug out?  He advocated for war to free Iraqis from a failed state, and a tyrannical despot.  He advocated for shock and awe because it could end conflict quickly, and yes...with reduced civilian casualties.  He -did not- advocate for our mishandling of the occupation...which accounts for those phenomenally high casualties, he was highly critical of it.

The war was anything but decisive and quick and anyone who knew strategy knew not to believe that "home before Christmas" nonsense. It was never explained why a more covert strategy was not available. It seems insane one wasn't given the amount of funding and liberty the covert sector receives. I'm open to the idea there is an explanation, its just Hitchens never actually gave it which seems a gross oversight for someone who had spent decades of his life researching foreign and political affairs. Even if we were to accept time was a factor the fact is we were concerned about nuclear materials. Wouldn't that be something you would want to take care of quietly? Given the history with the region the resources to do so should have already been available. None of this was ever approached and these aren't unreasonable questions. If I was an orator who had great knowledge of the issues at hand tasked with explaining my pro-war position I would of thought that would be one of the major things I would attempt to explain. The US government and military prides itself on having a number of advanced economical, covert and military solutions available to it yet in this case the only option was a botched occupation that put an absurd amount of civilians in body bags? Again, I would take alot of time explaining why that was if my job was to orate pro-war sentiment. He didn't. The fact of the matter is neither you and I actually know why there apparently weren't any options other than the one that resulted in the termination of countless non-combatants. 
Part of his job was to clear that up. Why despite all the investment, time and planning we dedicate to such scenarios the only possible outcome was what occurred.