Talking about escalation loses sight of the original intent of unseating Saddam, which was to remove the possibility of the lunatic right religicos getting their hands on WMDs.

Now I do admit the coalition made a huge mistake by closing the Shiite's newpaper; eventhough it spewed anti US diatribe, but being realistic, if that were left running then the Mullas would not have felt threatened and reacted.

Also reported widely here today, the arrest of a senior assistant to the head honcho of the Shiit's. They say that both Suni and Shiite are now united, something that nobody not even the British managed to do before.

Perhaps the US has driven out the hatred preached by Saddam's Bath party? Anyway it is a long way from Vietnam but what will happen if some heretofore hidden enemy of the west decided to even up the small arms inequality? What if the Iraqis now get real anti tank/armor weapons that work? What if they also get effective anti aircraft weapons. Don't forget folks the US is playing neo-colonial games right in the face of the RF, Uzbek and far more serious Georgia.

Hey if you want to put it to Old Europe then Rumsfeldt could not have chosen a better place to do it by his mits or finger up at the old enemy. Perhaps they are trying to show that the US can do what nobody has ever done, invade and colonise eastern Europe?