>IMHO it is easy for hardened, embittered people to see the West as arrogant and effete- a despicable target. Unless we prove otherwise, our kids may learn to resent us for the unsettled world we leave them. So IMHO it doesn't matter anymore whether the invasion was justified. The challenge for the US is to persuade those who opposed the invasion to share some of the current risk and cost. I think that will happen, and that in itself carries a lesson about unity that I hope we have all taken on board.


Agreed. But as Evan says, the current administration must start by admitting that 'some mistakes were made'. Accountability is important if you want credibility. The last live speech was more of the same. If you want to come clean, you do a somber speech, from the Oval Office, like Reagan used to do. If you do in in front of troops, like Bush always does, then it looks more like a campaign speech. The campaign is over. This is the time to accept responsibility, explain why we were mislead, stop joining 9/11 and Iraq in the same sentence, when the 9/11 Commission clearly indicated that the two are not related. It is time to explain the Blair Memo. It is time to explain what happenned to the missing 9 Billion or at least to launch an official investigation. It is time to give an official tally of dead and wounded. Accountability. How many heads have rolled from Abu Graib? How many for the "Mission Accomplished" fiasco? How many for the WMD failure. Anybody taken *any* responsibility?

Until then, credibility is thin.

You can fool some of the people some of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

-- Abraham Lincoln