I'm trying to write this in a computer store on my lunch break. I've ended up with three paragraphs that overlap. I'll fix it later.

Remember that we forced the most popular figure, the former king, to remove himself from contention for power in Afghanistan. And now we will be working with Chalabi in Iraq.
As in the last invasion, we are dealing with a population that was defeated long before we arrived, having been ruled for decades by our former vassal. There may be cheering in Basra and Baghdad today, but the people are cheering for themselves more than for us.

The search for WMD's, the original justification for the assault, is going to be replaced in the popular imagination, by the the smiling faces of the newly liberated Iraqis. We now have a huge responsibility, one that judged by the history of this administration, they are not up to, or even interested in. They seem barely interested in running their own country, let alone another.

War is a bloody mess. And if we concentrate only on casualty rates- I am remembering my own anger as I posted the link to Suzanne Goldenberg last night- we will miss the more important issues. Politics has to be a cold calculus, for both the left and right. Liberals try to hide that fact and often end up called weak, unprincipled, or hypocritical. But this was a dangerous and reckless war. It has done more to change the world then the atrocities of Sept 11th. Those interested in the survival of our country have a lot more to worry about than we did a few weeks ago. And a few images of smiling faces do not change that fact.