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>Personally, I do not think the administration had a clue as to what to expect from Iraq. They have opened Pandora’s box and we have not seen the end of the subject. No amount of cowboy dialogue, threats, or media misinformation can hide reality.

To an outsider, Tom, a few things are now clearer than ever vis-a-vis the Administration's anxiety to attaq Iraq...
1) Show the might of the U.S.
2) Get control of the oil.
3) Belittle the U.N. to the point of emasculation and irrelevance.
4) Get big fat juicy contracts for huge U.S. firms.
5) Try out the neat new weaponry developed since the last action on Iraq. Conflicts since that one have not been appropriate for most of that new stuff to be tried.

Iraq's dilapidated military equipment and poor state of the forces proved an easy target. This the self-same capacity that was putting the U.S. in "iminent danger"!

Iraq's legendary WMD seem to be just that - LEGENDARY. Yet they were not only known to exist but their locations were known too!

Iraq's oil was going to go "to the benefit of all of the Iraqi people who, after all, own the oil". Now it *MAY* be that way some day, but FIRST that oil is to be used to pay the enormous bills racked up by the U.S. in prosecuting the war and the 'peace'.

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>Our leaders are telling us that things are improving in Iraq, and everything is going according to plan. Tell that to the parents of those American and other Allied soldiers who are being killed in Iraq, as well as the Iraqi people.

That Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld and the rest of the CABAL have not yet resigned is a betrayal of their own character. That they have yet to be fired tells us a whole lot about the President. As long as the CABAL holds a shred of power us outsiders will continue to worry very deeply. Well, at least THIS outsider will.

Jim

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