Well, Bruce, we agrre on #1.

#2??? I might suggest that waiting for the scenerio that you have described might, with luck, be ten years out, or never.... 20,000 more Americans died in Vietnam after Nixon did his "stay the course" song and dance routine... The "Civil war" will come... It doesn't matter if it's this year or 30 years from now... The "civil war" was 100% guarenteed when Bush took out Saddam....

#3??? Well, kinda of. Let me explain. The "Sudir Proposal" which the Bush administration so carefully danced around but never endorsed would have provided for a road-map to a MIddle East peace... Bush didn't like if because it wouldn't provide him with a "war" (pick a war, any war will do...) that Karl Rove insisted he needed to stay in power so Bush just went beyond the peace initiative that was very much on the table...

...So, if I'm the president tomorrow, I', talkin' up the "Saudi Proposal" and trying to get the Arab countries back on board... You get them on board and thenthe Europeans fall into line... Buty it all stars with a little crafty back-tracking... Okay, call it eating a little crow pie... That is where any realistic peace process begins... Not with convincing Europe it needs to be Iraq... They ain't buyin'...

That's the way I see it...

Bobert