> What deteriorating situation in Iraq are you referring to? It never was
> good. The administration is just a little slow at understanding what their
> friends and allies were telling them when they lied about the WMDs to give
> themselves an excuse to invade. They should have finished the job in
> Afghanistan before starting a bigger conflict in Iraq.

There were obviously some underlying ethnic tensions in Iraq that were
kept in check by Sadam's dictatorship. Removing that power structure
and not being able to stabilize the country (in any sustainable sense)
allowed the tensions to erupt. There was an initial period of
stability in Iraq post invasion, but it has steadily deteriorated
since. It increasingly appears that the main concern for US interests
in the region East is Iran, and we have destroyed their mortal enemy.
The Shite majority in Iraq appear increasingly influenced by the Shite
Iran, and we may be headed for a much broader regional conflict. Of
course, finishing the job in Afghanistan and installing some puppet
government would have made more sense.


As mentioned above, the
> friends and allies of the US were opposed to the invasion because they did
> not believe the story about WMds and because they believed that, as bad as
> Saddam was, he was keeping a lid of other problems and that removing him
> would open up a can of works

I agree completely.

At the time we said that we were reserving the
> right to say we told you so. The US was not highly regarded in the Middle
> East to begin with, personal freedoms are an affront to the Moslems,
> support for Israel is a major thorn in their side, but now they have the
> added morale of holding the moral high ground. Lying about the WMDs,
> referring to documents they knew were forged, blaming Germany and France
> for supplying material and technology for WMDs when most of it came from
> the US, abducting people and sending them to limbo land like Gitmo,
> outsourcing torture, using banned weapons in civilian areas, lying about it
> and an attempt on the life of the journalist who exposed it have all
> served only to diminish the moral stature of the US.

I am more concerned about the assault on person freedoms in this
country than anything else that is going on. I am happy to see
Gonzales finally taken to task.

>
> Bin Laden was Number One most wanted when he was initially blamed for the
> 9/11 attacks. This week they were proudly showing off the confession of
> Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who confessed to having masterminded, organized and
> supervised the operation,

I have that most wanted flyer on the wall of my office, I promised I'd
take it down once they caught him. It has gotten rather worn and
tattered in the past five years.