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It's like some baby boomer nightmare: after decades of swearing that we would never repeat the mistakes of our parents, we are re-enacting the errors committed in Indochina in the 1960s and 1970s, every single one.

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My question: What do you mean "we"? You supported the idiot President and his idiot policies, and were wrote a book about what a Great Man he was. So now, it's a "Nightmare"??

Those of us who are not hereditary pundits screamed that the Iraq war was stupid, a quagmire, illegal, and so on and on. And you and your idiot friends ignored us, because you knew everything, having had private educations and all.

Now, David has a fall-back plan. It involves conceding that Iran have vastly increased influence in the area, and that Western powers basically retreat to Kurdisan.

But...wasn't Iran one of the axis of evil? What kind of intellectual won't admit that it was HIS policies which led to disaster, and not "our" policies?

david

[ 18 August 2006: Message edited by: jeff house ]

He was just the speechifier, Bush is the decider.

Iraq doubles funding for oil imports

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BAGHDAD, Iraq -
Iraq has doubled the money allocated for importing oil products in August and September to tackle the country's worst fuel shortage since
Saddam Hussein's 2003 ouster, a senior Iraqi official said Thursday.
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Even though Iraq has the world's third-largest proven oil reserves, it is forced to depend on imports because of an acute shortage of refined products such as gasoline, kerosene and cooking gas. Sabotage of pipelines by insurgents, corruption and aging refineries have been blamed.

A gallon of gasoline now sells on the black market in Baghdad for about $4.92, although its official price is $0.64. Lines of cars at many Baghdad fuel stations stretch several miles, and drivers sometime wait overnight to fill their cars.

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You supported the idiot President and his idiot policies

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Sadly, according to Frum/Perle, Bush was led astray by the nasty CIA and the State Department, who somehow overruled the Pentagon and led the way in such blunders (say F/P) as not working closely enough with Ahmad Chalabi, whom neo-Cons often praise as the 'George Washington of Iraq' for his deep understanding of Iraqis, even though his party won zero seats (earning .36% of the vote in Baghdad) in the December 2005 elections.

Also, if it had been up to Frum, the US would have been funding/training an Iraqi 'opposition army' as far back as 1998, so that the US would have had thousands of more armed Iraqi allies when it finally moved against Saddam. I'm sure the Iraqi National Congress would have welcomed the extra dollars, but I doubt that would have made up for the dastardly, anti-Chalabi machinations of the CIA and Colin Powell.

[ 22 August 2006: Message edited by: sgm ]

The best solution,winning according to Frum is not considered. Galbraith's solution is for American forces to garrison in Iraqi Kurdistan,

Hmmm...Galbraith doesn't bother to consider supply logistics or the fact that this strategy leaves the US entirely dependent on both Turkey and the Kurds.

On the other hand,Galbraith and Frum can't do a worse job than Bush either.