[Wolfstar]

"Satan," I remain deeply impressed by your intellect and your fearless willingness to urge others to think. However, I would urge you to not overlook this fact: Even the incredible Bush team cannot control all events. There are plenty of independent actors in this drama, each with their own agendas and publics to feed. Public relations is a nasty beast that can easily devour the best-laid plans of the best-intentioned people. The PR beast has taken an extremely tricky and worrisome turn in this cold month of February. What I am hoping for is a good old-fashioned massive backlash against all the rabid anti-Americanism coming from the Left. But I am not optimistic, because most people aren't informed enough to understand that it is, in fact, ideologically driven.

[cicero's_son]

If TGS' theory is correct (and, I'm sorry to say, I'm beginning to believe that it might be), then the anti-Americanism you cite serves our immediate purpose: to delay without acknowledging that we are being blackmailed by Iraq.

In due time, this antipathy will disappear. I personally expect Bush and Powell to use the next few months to prove their multilateralist and diplomatic bona fides, which should please our European "allies."

[The Great Satan]

What you have to understand is, people don't want to be killed with anthrax. Therefore, we aren't getting into a shooting match with Saddam just yet. But, to quote my alter ego in The Exorcist: "In time. In time."

[The Great Satan]

I was just looking at goodnesswins' thread, The New United Nations, and I had a rather interesting thought. I've been wondering what the gambit is going to be to keep forward momentum going and avoid losing face as we string this out over summer and probably beyond. There has to be a game plan. I think I see a nifty possibility here. Bush could make the failure of the UN the immediate issue, and leverage the situation to replace it. This would make sense from so many different angles, it's not even funny. It would allow us to put Saddam on the back-burner (but still warming up) while we haggle over the ending of the UN and the establishment of the new "Liberty Alliance" -- we could kill a year on that without looking weak. It would allow us to kiss Kofi Annan goodbye -- and he, more than anyone outside of Iraq, is responsible for the current crisis in world security. We could blow off all the crap, all the losers, all the sadists and psychos on the world stage, and leave them to stew in their own muck. And then, sometime next year, when the realignment is complete and we have our defenses together, we could go in there and kick Saddam's ass. Look, I've only had a few minutes to think about this scenario, but wouldn't this just be classic George W. Bush?