see the roses and chocolate being tossed at us?

Hah. Remember the live video of the Sadaam statue toppling? Well, it turns out that the mob in that square dragging down the statue were Mahdi militia members. They were chanting, "Long live Al Sadr!"

for what it is worth -- i cant imagine anything we would have done would have made the situation turn out right there

You could have had a Shia theocracy in fairly short order after the invasion. The country is 80% Shia and Ayatollah Sistani had tremendous leadership clout at the time. If we had let the Shia wipe out the Sunnis Bathists for us, things could have at least stabilized. Sistani was extremely restrained early on. The Shia were thankful for toppling Sadaam. There was the basis for a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" working relationship. We needed to do the deal with the Shia and get out. Declare victory and then quickly cut n' run.

But, a Shia theocratic government was unacceptable to us...that's why G. Bush the First didn't proceed to Baghdad in 1991.