Blame The Conquered, The People of Iraq?

Perhaps military historians can tell me this, but does this new system of "They-a-culpa" (as noted by The Daily Show) on Iraq, where our president, our military leaders, and our "elected" leaders (Republican and Democrat!) blame the people of Iraq for the mess of the Iraq war we orchestrated, have any historic parallels?

I'm completely speechless.

If I go sack my neighbor's house, wipe out the wage earner, irreparably beat the other "parent", take away everything of value in that house, can I really claim that it's my neighbor's fault because they couldn't stop me? Or - more Bushian - because they could not recover from the damage I inflicted?