Model for Democracy in the Middle East

First, let's all revisit our first success in Afghanistan.

The most senior British military commander in Afghanistan today described the situation in the country as "close to anarchy" with feuding foreign agencies and unethical private security companies compounding problems caused by local corruption.

The stark warning came from Lieutenant General David Richards, head of Nato's international security force in Afghanistan, who warned that western forces there were short of equipment and were "running out of time" if they were going to meet the expectations of the Afghan people.

If we look back to the old Soviet empire, they were not brought down by Ronald Reagan. They were brought down by Afghanistan. We helped, we funded the Mujahadin, part of which became Al Qaida and the Taliban. Once the Soviets left with their collective tails between their legs did we stay to re build the country? No. And what happened? The same thing that is happening now.

Let's move over to "Mission Accomplished". If Mr. Bush's mission was to destabilize Iraq completely that he has succeeded!

Two American soldiers were killed Saturday in Baghdad, seven Shiite construction workers were gunned down and five Sunni civilians were blown up, deepening the capital's security crisis. Shiite politicians called on the prime minister to cancel his visit to Washington to protest Israel's attacks in Lebanon.

With violence rising, the United States is moving to bolster American troop strength in the Baghdad area, putting on hold plans to draw down on the 127,000-member U.S. military mission in Iraq.

The Iraqi's are standing up. The problem is they're standing up against us and each other therefore we cannot stand down.

Finally, let's go to Israel and Lebanon. Mr. Bush is playing the role of Peter Gallagher in While You Were Sleeping and not doing much of anything because apparently this uprising is good for the democratic process in the Middle East.

I don't know how killing civilians, who unlike us, have long memories, is good for any process. Oh, wait, I understand. They're not embryos! It's ok for them to die senselessly.

Where does this all end? How much more damage can Mr. Bush do in the next two years?