I'm afraid I agree with you on this. I say afraid because, regardless of what our Bush-loving friends believe, I really would prefer Iraq succeed.

Problem is, this action had one window of opportunity and that closed long ago. We may actually have been welcomed as liberators had we somehow stabilized the country quickly after our blitzkrieg run. Once the public was allowed to stew in their insecurity, it became too late in my opinion.

There are simply too many propaganda posters we fed to the insurgents. They have a decade of material they can stir the pot with no matter how many elections are held or militia are trained.

It's like going out on a date for the first time or a job interview. That first impression does it all. There's almost never a second chance if you fall flat on your face. The conservative posters are going to argue we never faltered but they're judging success by American news sources, not the International media that permeated the Arab world. What was shock and awe to us was terrifying and maddening to them. What is that fundamental difference in us that some of us can grasp that and others just shut it out?

Art