Mary Anne,

I share your sense of dispair. We've crossed the Rubicon and there is no turning back. There is a cross roads ahead of us with many different paths. Unfortunately we can not see beyond that cross roads. Many of the paths lead to ruin while a few might lead to victory.

Are our leaders wise enough to follow the right direction? Today I was unimpressed by Powell's performance at the Security Council. He was clearly out maneuvered by the French. We probably need a Kissinger class diplomat working the Security Council now (Powell must have someone of that caliber on his staff). Fortunately we are not yet ready to initiate war. It is obvious that our situation in Turkey must be fully defined. If the Turks agree to allow our forces on their territory and after our troops are deployed then a war with Iraq is possible. If the Turks refuse then we are still obligated to insure the Turks defense since they are trusted allies. The French and Germans fully recognize the importance of Turkey which is why they have compromised NATO to block Turkey's defense (the French showed desperation in doing this). As our situation in Turkey reaches its conclusion, we'll have one more chance to make things right with the Security Council. I'm hoping that the CIA, the Mossad or somebody has that last critical piece of intelligence that can be revealed at the crucial moment (Bush would have been very unwise to have started this without something in his hip pocket). If what we have seen so far is the best that Powell/Bush can do then this thing could snowball very quickly.

Gary