And don't overlook the fact that the US is now in Saddam's shoes -- how to put down a Muslim uprising. The warbloggers and their cousins are starting to sound like Ba'athists when denouncing the Shi'a militias, up to and including an anti-Iranian cartoon that appeared at LGF. Doubtless the same type of image appeared in Ba'athist newspapers back in the day.

Maybe coalition authorities can ask Saddam for some tips on how to quell the current violence. Why waste a perfectly good resource?

Wait. I thought all those people shooting at our troops were "dead enders" and a handful of outside agitators. How are they recruiting among a lot of unhappy people? I thought we were being welcomed with open arms? I am SO out of the loop here.
Seriously, though, Dennis has a great point. The U.S. is now in the position of having to re-impose the brutal dictatorship that Saddam used to rule this large country with its disparate ethnic and political groups. He kept a lid on things by being the primary enemy of most factions, and having such overwhelming force - and a willingness to use it - that no one dared challenge him. Thanksfully, that's not a role for which we are particularly equipped as a nation, but it doesn't leave us with a lot of great options.

It’s almost unbelievable how many bad decisions bush has made. His “War on Terror” failure is like the Grand Canyon; bigger than can be comprehended at first but intricate in its depth and the thoroughness of stupidity, craven power driven scheming; all gone bad. We will pay long and dearly for bush’s errors.

The World needs a prosperous and open Iraq, but BushCo wanted to own it. Bush wanted permanent bases to be able to strike out anywhere in mid-Asia, but we will be thrown out. We are now killing Iraqiis on Arab TV. If we don’t get out of this graciously, we face trouble. If Iraq splits up, as Israel and Iran want and Turkey doesn‘t, there will always be multiple ungovernable borders and tensions. Either way, there would be an arc from Beruit to Karachi without a single friend. Al-Queda has had two years to decentralize and disperse. Their cause has actually grown stronger. Bush has united the wrong people.

Worse and worse it gets, as some people have correctly predicted, and bush digs in. Proudly ignorant, comfortable in his cocoon of bull, and it’s called “moral clarity.” To use his vernacular, I ask “Is our President learning?”

It is late and I am in a smoke filled Internet bar in China so I am going to make this fast...

1) This is only one stage of our long long "war" in Iraq. We hired Saddam and we fired him.
2) Regardless of politics we should push for elections asap but not on Bush & Co.'s timeline.
3) I am going to be blunt about this... Bush is not stupid in regards to Iraq and I do not think he did not roll the dice as Nathan has commented in the past. In this regard Bush and Co. are NOT stupid. They are simply evil. The mess in Iraq is not the issue for them. The issue for them is that the world stood up and said this is madness. It is, to be crass, an PR issue for them, as much as it is a military campaign. As Nathan has rightly said, Iraq is not about oil. It is about politics in the region. Think: Are deficits about economics or are they about ideology. Yes folks, they did intend on blowing up Iraq. But again, they did not anticipate the public outcry (from all quarters of the globe).
4）Things are going badly for us in this regard. We do have an exit strategy but it will take time. We must allow and call for elections; we must work to allow Arab countries to contribute and have a voice in both Iraq and the region; we must work to bring forces back to the table in Israel and for the Palestinian people (we must build that state); we must dump Bush in the fall.

Things look grim; it is true, but it does not mean that things always have to be grim. That is message that progressive should continue to send the world.