(Warning: This post contains complex foreign affairs concepts)

To turn the success of the US engagement of Iraq as a question of WMD recovered, follows the same pattern as when the left keyed success on capturing Saddam. Saddam was captured and now WMD recovery is all we have left.

Between the time Rumsfeld "knew" where WMD were stashed and the time we had feet on the ground in those locations - time elapsed. The world's not static. And with the UN, French, Belgian & German interests in Saddam's longevity as dictator we can, now in retrospect, assume any intelligence we shared was likely compromised.

Saddam had plenty of time to dispose of or move chemicals, munitions.

But that's not really the issue. The issue we went to war on wasn't the recovery of WMD, rather the elimination of the threat of WMD from a tyrant who was shooting at our no-fly zone planes daily and who seriously believed he was untouchable.

The US goal of displacing Saddam's government was achieved. As a bonus we actually captured Saddam alive.

The world is much more complex than any left soundbite.

Here is some insight on the behind the scenes of this conflict:

Right now Putin is selling arms to third world nations - about 18 billion dollars worth for 2006. A huge contract has been secured in Algeria, last month, worth 7.5 billion dollars.

Where do you think all those weapons will end up? How many people living in the third world will be killed by Russian arms? A lot.

The USSR was an octopus fueling conflict all over the world. The goal was to destabilize democracy, supporting insurgencies and nations sympathetic to communist doctrine. Now they merely relish the economic harvest of these arms contracts. Russian arms will be used all over China, India, Africa and the Middle East. The Iraqi insurgents will get their hands on these weapons and explosives and indirectly Russian arms sales help keep the third world in turmoil.

The US needed to return to Iraq and remove the Hussein ( & UN) problem. No one said Iraq could be turned into a utopia overnight. Iraq is a third world nation. Take a close look at the goings-on right at this moment in similar third world nations, and you'll see that your 3 year casualty count is perhaps one week's toll around the 3rd world.

The Iraqi military and police have been outgunned by insurgents who use Russian made automatic assault rifles. The US has now brought in US arms to equip the police and army. The goal is to reduce conflicts by having both sides armed - instead of only Sunni insurgents armed with Russian weapons.

As a result, in the short term, we have seen a schism in Shiite police & army groups that have misused their new weaponry and with revenge as their goal, strike Sunni insurgent strongholds.

These are the behind the scenes maneuvers that occur behind the soundbite headlines. The much hyped "civil war" is nothing other than the immediate result of having two sides now equally armed. Once the insurgents realize they no longer can maraud with impunity, they are slowly wising up. Likewise once the Shiite factions clear out the revenge-seekers from their policing forces, greater stability will be the result.

The weapons were needed also because armed gangs and marauders, both from within Iraq and from other nations have used the dissension to loot and rob.

None of this stuff happens overnight. The USA took a decade to acheive stability once the yokes of the oppressors were forcibly removed. I expect Iraq will take a decade, before the dust settles and life settles down to a new level of propserity and freedom for the masses.

Oversimplification of foreign affairs is for spectators and partisans. Those who really are informed about the goings on in the world see far more shades than just black and white.