Three years ago today, in what will ultimately be seen as the most bizarre, highly staged photo-op of all time, the president of the United States landed on an aircraft carrier, dressed in a military uniform, to make a speech that would turn out to be as phony and ill-conceived as the rest of his presidency.

In the finest tradition of Josef Stalin, Moammar Gadhafi, Idi Amin, Adolf Hitler, and all of the other leaders who dressed in military uniforms, our president strutted on the deck of the carrier attired in a "Top Gun" flight suit. He then gave a speech, declaring that his "Coalition of the willing" had defeated a country that was basically unarmed.

The "war" was over and we had won. But had we? This is what I wrote three years ago:

While the president has declared an end to hostilities, the war in Iraq is just getting underway. While some will be reminded of Vietnam in terms of our deepening involvement, it will actually be more like the American Revolutionary War in structure. A large, militarily superior occupation force from a foreign government controls an entire country. Slowly, the citizens of the occupied country form an organized resistance that grows until the invading army is withdrawn.

After a while, the Bush administration will have to admit that they're fighting Iraqi citizens, rather than blaming "Saddam loyalists," "isolated pockets of resistance," and "terrorists." They'll also have to explain why we're at war with a bunch of people that we just "liberated."

In the end, it will be like our Revolutionary War. The ultimate irony is that this time King George is an American.

Some quotes:

Before the war: "What you'd like to do is have it be a short, short conflict. The best way to do that is have such a shock on the system, the Iraqi regime would have to assume early on the end is inevitable." - General Richard Myers, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

After May 1, 2003: "Nobody should have any illusions that this is going to be a quick and easy victory. This is going to be a tough war, a tough slog yet, and no responsible officials I know has ever said anything different once this war has started." - General Richard Myers, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff