Doug, I'm not claiming that I had all the answers then, and I don't claim to have all the answers now. Eventually, it comes down to trust; since I do not have the expertise, nor the authority, nor the access to intelligence and secret plans that our President and senior government officials have, I accept the fact that I have to leave this in others' hands, based on whatever level of trust they have earned by their past actions. I basically trusted Bush and his administration to handle this right, based in large part on their management of the war in Afghanistan, and on the statements of others within and outside of the administration that seemed to bolster their claims. I did not know what their specific plans were for the occupation; I wasn't supposed to know, and I accepted that. But I expected, and trusted, that plans were in place, and that they were well thought out. I believe that subsequent events have shown that there were profound flaws in the planning, and that these were exacerbated by the arrogance of our leaders, who were very dismissive of any input that didn't fit with their preconceived notions of how the world worked.

When our leaders screw up, we should call them on it. It's all part of this democracy business.

Dianavan, I think you could make the case that you knew in advance of the invasion that Bush and others in his administration were arrogant; I'll admit that there were signs of that, and maybe you read them more accurately than I did. However, I question whether, three years ago, you knew (or could have known) of the inadequacies in the planning. That stuff was secret, and unless you were in the inner circle, you didn't know that any better than I did. Hindsight is 20/20, but you're not talking about hindsight; you're talking about the position you took at the time. What exactly did you know about the planning that I didn't?

As for Cindy Sheehan, I don't know if she is arrogant or not. But she doesn't seem to have any good ideas for how to resolve the mess we're in now -- and since that is the question that needs to be answered, I don't see the sense in focusing so much attention on her.