"...everything is out of control..." in Iraq.

That's all the hyperbole you need to read to not bother to take this piece seriously.

So you are confidently predicting a pro-American, peaceful, democratic Iraq then, Rand?

MARCU$

No, but I'm hopeful. Once certainly can't draw any useful conclusions about the prospects for it from hysteria like this article.

Over the past twenty five years, we've been drawn into a civil war in the Arab world. It's important that we help the side win that favors modernization and freedom, because the alternative is too grim to contemplate.

> Over the past twenty five years, we've been
> drawn into a civil war in the Arab world. It's
> important that we help the side win that favors
> modernization and freedom, because the
> alternative is too grim to contemplate.

As an aside, do you think the Administration is doing enough in Iraq right now?

It seems normally pro-war bloggers such as Andrew Sullivan and Daniel Drezner are running out of patience because they feel Rumsfeld & co. are not allocating sufficient manpower and financial resources to do a good job.

MARCU$

I spent Thursday in an airport hotel in Sweden and got chatting to this guy at the bar who turned out to be a US Marine liasion officer. He was pretty damning about the US administrations actions in Iraq, from the initial attack through the reconstruction activities and lack of resources being put to it. I found it interesting to hear a military officer putting forward views which matched my own.

He also said that he liked Bush - after all, Bush had given him an enormous pay rise.

An interesting tidbit from MSNbC today points out that the injured tally from the actions so far is running at around 1500 with daily flights back to the US for the medical evacuations.