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President Bush never understood what our purpose should be. He thought you just remove the tyrants in a society and lead the people to Democracy and the example in Iraq will bring all the other dark age societies to the light. You cannot change an entire ethos by knocking the head honcho down. Germany was a Western society in the 1930s. We had to thoroughly beat and stun the populace before we could reshape thee Germans' worldview sufficiently to remold the society, which we did. We had to do the same to the Japanese population and we succeeded there. We approached a totally alien society in Iraq with an entirely different view of proper relationship and why things happen and we did not break the society down. We just changed the channel on their TV and all the people see is static.

I agree with all that you wrote. I think with the defeat and imminent hanging of Hussein we have given and will give Iraq a gift they can never repay. In my view, this is not something they would have ever been able to do for themselves. Do remember though, that a benefactor is many times hated because he is a living reminder of the period in a man's life when he was his inferior.

I believe we still have a shot at making this thing work. I believe we went there for a few reasons, least of which is captured by your tagline, but I also believe President Bush to be capable of being facile. His mission accomplished photo-op is exhibit A of what I speak of when I refer to him as facile. He also seems to have the capacity to be big picture guy, though, so perhaps a balance is possible.

Haven't kept up with the news, so don't know if Rumsfeld has actually resigned or not, but the more I think about that the more I find it odious. If he's bad enough to get rid of now, he's been bad enough to get rid of long before this, and this type of politiking when the lives of our boys are on the line is reprehensible in the extreme.

There are more than a couple of people I'd like to see exhiled: Robert MacNamara is first among equals here. President Carter follows him in succession. And this thing with Rumsfeld leaves my confidence in President Bush at the lowest it's ever been.

Oh, and one last thing. I want someone to tell me how it is possible to graduate from Yale and have the abysmal language skills that President Bush does? Why is it that I can make a better case for the war than he can? I will tell you this, I will not vote for anyone as inarticulate as him again. I know that being articulate cannot make up for ethics, etc., but it is really important.

IIRC, Truman was a bit of a word bumbler too, but the difference is he had the capacity to come up with lines like I don't give 'em hell, I just give 'em the truth, and they think it's hell, so that you had the sense that there really was something there, and not just something created by a bunch of 'handlers.' And besides, Truman didn't graduate from Yale. It's pathetic to have to admit that the guy you voted for couldn't be articulate if his life depended on it.

P.S. Any crankiness you detect in my post is not directed at you. Haven't had my coffee yet...