Speaking, appropriately enough, in Belgium, former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix says he hopes the US learned a lesson in Iraq.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Hans Blix, the former chief U.N. weapons inspector, was quoted on Friday as saying he hoped Washington had learned its lesson in Iraq about the need for multinational cooperation.

Blix also told the Belgian daily De Morgen the United States could not simply choose to leave Iraq after toppling Saddam Hussein.

“The United States is on the ground, they can’t leave now. But…they don’t have much experience in reconstructing a country,” said Blix, the former Swedish foreign minister who for 16 years headed the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

That’s true; the US has almost no experience in rebuilding countries. It isn’t common knowledge, but that old Marshall Plan thing that rebuilt most of Europe after World War II was actually planned, funded, and implemented by Belgium, with help from Sweden.