The best defense

"Whatever disagreements we might have had over how we got to this point in Iraq, the consequences of a failed state in Iraq - of chaos there - will adversely impact the security and prosperity of every nation in the Middle East and the Gulf region," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

A failed state in Iraq may or may not have been on the administration's mind when it doctored intelligence to convince Congress to rubber-stamp invasion. Shaking the tree to bring all possible terrorists into one place in the world (other than the U.S.) to give us an enemy to fight, however, was a recipe for a failed state.

Can the Bush administration have been so blind? Certainly America was blinded. But I think the Bushites chose this occupation locale exactly because it was a locus for destabilization, or could be. I think they wanted the Middle East, and Africa, in a state of turmoil. I think there's profit in that for those that want control of resources, fat government weapons and services contracts, and especially oil.

Winners and losers, that's what this war is about. "Who benefits?" The only reason we're seeing a plea for neighboring countries to use their influence to calm things is to intimidate those countries into realizing there's nothing they can do to calm things.

Cynicism is a rationalization for doing nothing, and doing nothing is obedience.