You're missing something very important Guest, and it is exemplified in the ambitions of Sadr. His forces stand ready to repeat the melodrama of the rise pf Baathism in Iraq and re-assert the government of others by intimidation and brutal force. In sh9ort, terror.

I despise the war in Iraq and have since before it began. But do not pretend that --absent Coalition overwhelming forces -- all the Iraqis need is humanitarian aide. There are psychos within as well as without. How to enable a democratic civilization in the presence of lawlessness is the big issue. What they need is something akin to the Texas Rangers, a force for order known and recognized as coming from "the people" (well, the new settlers, anyway!).

A