Agreed- I'd prefer to avoid both if at all possible, personally, but at the same time I wonder if the various gangs and similar groups wouldn't cause any such rebuilding efforts to fail simply because a strong central government would erode their own authority and power. Which would mean that some sort of authority would have to be put into place in order to minimize or eliminate their influence.

While a strong native authority would be difficult to establish from the beginning, importing some sort of governance isn't going to bypass the issues of stewardship, particularly if this is happening as a solely US-backed effort. I don't have an answer to that one, as much as I'd like to.