There is a goddam WAR going on. If you can find me a single instance in history where a region was more stable during a war than before or after it, let me know. Same for Afghanistan.

I believe there is a chance--I'd call it at no better than about 1 in 3--that Iraq can come out of this better off ten years from now than ten years ago. Some areas of Iraq like the Kurdish areas are already better off. The Marsh Arabs are back. For all the crap we are getting from the Shiites in Iraq, they can worship as they please now, something that we get no credit for at all. And remember, the U.N. was telling us sanctions were killing 5,000 Iraqi kids a month.

We can go over other individual countries, if you like. I doubt Iran would be much different now if we were only fighting in Afghanistan. We can discuss how the Iranian nuclear program might have gone if Saddam were still in power, or how it might have been suppressed, but that's almost a thread to itself.

Syria is still Syria. Libya I mentioned. Lebanon, Hezbollah, and the Palestinians would probably be doing what they're doing anyway.

I don't see anything hitting the fan (any more than usual) in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, or any of those little rich nations like the UAE or Kuwait.

Pakistan is one nation where it's obvious that the wars have changed things for the worse. If the Taliban were still running Afghanistan, I suspect that western Pakistan would be a lot quieter now.

Pakistan is a serious problem right now, and frankly, If Musharraf isn't willing to do something about it, I'm not sure where else anyone can go from there.