Why the suprise about never-ending missions? Catch-22 comes to mind. From what gets across to the UK it sometimes sounds like Rumsfeld is the only villain. But Cheney's surely lining his pockets? We may be on shaky ground with our monarchy, but how does an established democracy like the US wind up with such an administration as risibly shabby as this one?

And whatever the terns abd conditions governing the troops, they are surely entitled to complain about the the sheer inadequacy of the occupying army to cope with what's een asked of it. As a Baghdad reporter said tonight, winning heads and minds have gone out of the equation for those guys, which surely beckons a catastophe scenario akin to Vietnam.

Bush may be finished, but inheriting the mess will be a poisoned chalice for the dems.