"My guess is that history will say that the forces that we liberated by invading Iraq were so powerful and so uncontrollable that virtually nothing the United States might have done, except to impose its own repressive state with half a million troops, which might have had to last ten years or more, nothing we could have done would have effectively prevented this disintegration that is now occurring," - John Burns, talking to Tim Russert.
I was dumb enough to think back in 2002 that we were actually going to send half a million troops for ten years. I thought 9/11 merited such a response. Of course, the president disagreed, never took the war seriously, and ran a bad invasion on the cheap and on the fly. But Burns is fundamentally right, it seems to me. He was right about Saddam and has been largely right about the aftermath. If someone actualy believes we are going to solve this by sending 17,500 troops into Baghdad now, they're clinical. Which means to say: either the president is clinical or cynical with young lives.
(Photo: US Army soldiers from the 5-20 Infantry Division walk in formation as they search house to house during the launch of Operation Arrowhead Strike Six in the Shaab neighbourhood of northern Baghdad, 06 February 2007. DAVID FURST/AFP/Getty Images.)