Arming dissidents and hoping for the best, just to find that the U.S.-trained and equipped thugs have taken over a country that continues to slip into turmoil is 19th century thinking. It didn't work then, and continued to fail through the 20th century.

"You want a job done right? Do it yourself."

Now, the soldiers are getting ambushed, in a country which they don’t understand the language nor the history nor the culture of.

Life’s a bitch, especially for the Infantry.

It's getting hotter and hotter under their helmets.

Try it in Panama.

Do the soldiers get out in contact with the population, with their helmets off?

Only the GIs who don’t really care if they ever get back home alive.

Do the US authorities delegate enough to the Iraqis?

Probably just enough.

Meanwhile, Islamic fundamentalism is getting its way into power. If it's prevented, it's more interference and not the promised democracy. Where's the electricity, where's the arrested Saddam aide? Why can't he be shown on TV and prove to the Iraqis he's no threat anymore (some are wondering if the story is even true, because of that).

As for the wheres and whys, I don't know. Have you looked for them? Are they being televised in Iraq? I'm not there, and I haven't been hanging on the media coattails lately. I do, though, know that feeding him to the media is against the Geneva Convention.

The US has got to win their trust. And also, why is the US media more intimidated than the UK's on this matter?

Because we shoot our editors.

All things that happen result in a level of localized chaos, Raoul. Iraq is seeing progress on a massive scale for the first time in decades, and progress will bring with it a certain amount of destruction In battle people die. It really can't be helped. A war with zero casualties is not a very good war, change without chaotic repercussions is no change at all, and progress without change is not progress.

Results are coming even now, but of course they are heavily curbed by media and political reps alike. We will see what the solution in Iraq and the Middle East will be, but please bear in mind that the solution will be divined by the hand of public outcry -- by people like posters at the Habitable Zone.

Dan