Powell had it wrong. This is worse than the Pottery Barn Rule.

[chieftain]

We broke it, now Iraq owns us. Our options are limited and all bad. The longer we are there the more limited and worse they will become.We Democrats have to keep reminding the country that the carnage and danger to come is the result of starting this immoral adventure not for ending it.

[yy4me]

1. If you break something, it is usually one item, not the whole

store. We not only broke Iraq, we ruined the most progressive country in the Middle East. Saddam may have been awful but his people had a good standard of living. The country that was the Cradle of Civilization now exists as a pile of rubble. People there will never be the same. All the history and culture is gone. I am ashamed that we live in a country that has done such a thing. We will never be able to right this wrong.

[chieftain]

4. It is a terrible irony, that W has transformed the most sectarian

country in the Middle East and a bulwark against Iranian expansion,into a seething cauldron of religious warfare inevitably to be an Iranian satellite. The Neo Cons have succeeded in achieving exactly the opposite of what they predicted. Their hubris and ignorance have created a due bill that it will take this nation generations to redeem.

[lapfog_1]

2. Pottery Barn Rule...

I call it the "Plate Glass Window Rule", you break it and it cuts you to shreds on the way down. Putting it and you back together may well be out of the question.

[roamer65]

3. Shades of August, 1914...

* has disturbed the post-WW 1 partitioning of the former Ottoman Empire. There will be a regional ME war, possibly WW 3. The aftershocks of *'s actions are only beginning.