I'm speechless.

Somethings missing, but I need to digest this.

While there are many valid comparisons between Vietnam and Iraq (with many of the same characters back for a return engagement)Mark Danner's article portrays an administration of solipsists. Vietnam was a disaster of misinformation and misunderstanding but while facts were spun there seemed to be some recognition that facts were in fact facts. Bush, Wolfowitz and the whole sick crew appear to have departed consensual reality. I don't know what is more alarming, an administration of psychotics or the media insiders who witnessed the insanity and largely kept silent. Oh, and let's not forget Congress and the American people too. And please, it is Thanksgiving, someone tell me that Henry Kissenger has been diagnosed with a lingering, painful and disfiguring fatal disease. I guess I could wait for Christmas but not much longer.

This piece is a recap of other well-documented descriptions of the bothched war rationale and execution. The unanswered issue remains: where do we go from here? Certain writers are relating Iraq and the Green Zone to that of Saigon of 1975 where the US was finally kicked out of Vietnam after 15 years of futility. However, the circumstances in Iraq are more subtle in that we are merely in Act I of a long-term struggle which will ultimately define the future role of the US in the world. The debacle of Iraq is merely the first of many disappointments that the US will endure which will culminate in a multi-polar world where the US will dominate only in a regional sense militarily and then on the world's stage only proportionately to our economic clout. In other words, the US will concede its role as the world's policeman and ultimate arbiter of world affairs. The primary risk to the US in the future will be some rogue nation nuking a US city just "for the hell of it". I don't say this to be funny but randon acts of massive terror will be "common" and unavoidable and will be factored into the international calculus of world affairs. The rise of transnational groups and nation-proxies will blur the boundaries of existing nations and historical alliances.

This state of affairs is not the result of Iraq, rather it is the natural unwinding of the Cold War that George Kennan foretold so brilliantly. The long-pull of history is pulling the US into a direction that is inexorably toward a role that is limited militarily. This will not be the result of "anti-imperialists" types prevailing but the recognition that large military responses around the world will no longer be deemed effective at any level. All wars in the future will be political in nature and resolved politically. Nuclear weapons will be the only exception to this rule; howver, major military initiatives such as Iraq will be viewed as "total waste of time" because a well organized insurgency will nullify even the most dominant military force. Wars will be fought primarily in the media, in the blogosphere and in the court of world public opinion.

Writers who dwell on Iraq as some momentous turning point in world history will be disappointed to learn that the last major turning point ocurred in 1989 not 2006.

Mark Danner certainly clears up one thing I've been wondering about... why wasn't there a plan for what to do after we toppled Saddam? I guess I never put it together that Chalabi would be installed, and when that was put aside we were then left adrift, Bush/Cheney unable to come up with an alternative. So meanwhile, we let the future terrorists and agents of civil war clean out all those weapons depots (Rumsfeld had a rather clever dismissal of the problem of looting that I don't recall) and prepare to blow the golden dome in Samarra sky high, and also trigger today's bombings which will, I greatly fear, have a similar impact as far as triggering future strife, despair and bloodshed. Add to this volatile mix the provocative torture and murder in Abu Ghraib and other local prisons, the prevailing distrust between Sunni and Shi'ite and also the willingness of other players like Iran and Syria to assist provocation and murder, and you have civil strife that seems to be proceeding towards war with a Faulknerian inevitability. I truly don't know what policies would proceed from "reality based" decision making, and I really look forward to seeing the rest of Mr. Danner's article. I only hope that somebody somewhere can see a way forward out of the greatest foreign policy disaster in the history of the USA.

Clifton Goodwin

Every single goal of this ill-fated war has turned out the exact opposite of what was intended. No exceptions whatever.

George Bush could not possibly have helped Al Qaeda, Iran and other enemies and adversaries if he was on their direct payroll. No wonder we haven't had another major terrorist attack in our homeland since 9/11.

This article emphasizes the urgent need to rescind the "emergency" powers granted to him, and to prevent the granting of any more. These include in particular rescinding the military commissions law, legalizing his previous and ongoing wiretapping acts, and his signing statements that he thinks allow him to obey or enforce and all the other unprecedented grabs for power he has made and is trying to make. Such powers would be wrong in the hands of the most competent president, and this one's incompetence truly boggles the mind.

The rubber stamp Republican Congress bears much of the blame, for abdicating its responsibility to provide the only effective control on a runaway executive: oversight.

We may actually be lucky that Iraq has turned into such a fiasco. Had it succeeded as hoped we'd probably be even more boggen down in Iran, Syria and who knows where else by now.

Finally, this article proves what I've been saying all along:

George W. Bush is indeed a bold and decisive leader. So is the first lemming over the cliff.

The rest is rationalization, fluff, lies, bullshit- whatever you want to call it.

The driving force behind our US invasion of Iraq was the desire for more oil.

OILCO is a greedy, immoral, dinosaur industry, which is running our country, and ruining our country.