A Devil's Advocate comment:  this post made me think of the schoolyard bully analogy.  War may well be failure, and the specific war in Iraq may very likely have been a poor strategic choice.  However, at what point should one take it on the chin before fighting back?  After the first WTC bombing?  After the second?  After Saddam cost allies' lives liberating Kuwait and then seemed to turn his back on the surrender terms? 

I'm not saying that any of these incidents necessarily justify a warlike response, but I think everyone can see that there is a gray boundary area that can be crossed.  Clearly some in the Bush administration feel that to have been so. 

RS