In a November 2002 cover story in the Atlantic Monthly titled “The Fifty-first State,” journalist James Fallows noted that a decision to go to war with Iraq with the purpose of destroying the regime of Saddam Hussein would mean that Iraq would “have claims on American resources and attention . . . comparable to those of any U.S. state.” Predicting (correctly) that in the event of war the United States military would be victorious and that Hussein’s government would be overthrown, Fallows argued that once the war was over, “Iraq would become America’s problem, for practical and political reasons. . . . Conquered Iraqis would turn to the U.S. government for emergency relief, civil order, economic reconstruction, and protection of their borders.”

President George W. Bush appeared to confirm Fallows’ contention in...