That was the big gamble. I think it was a good bet. Whether it pays off or not, it was the best bet to make under the circumstances. Nobody can build a nation. The people themselves either succeed in becoming a nation, or not. The other two alternatives to what Dubya did in Iraq would be to either take up the White Man’s Burden from imperial England, i.e., perpetual nursemaiding to and policing of the backward populations of the world, or letting everything just continue to go nuts and comforting ourselves that at least we’ve eschewed imperialism, proving our moral sensibility at any rate to ourselves as the mushroom clouds annihilate all life.