On the issue of who is 'we' in Iraq. I presume it is only the Coalition of the Willing (COW).

The remainder of the world remain mere bystanders because they feel that the cause was trumped up to serve self interests and I am not talking about Oil alone!

While Afghanistan was totally justified since it was incumbent of ObL to stand trial for 9/11, the then Afghan govt failed to hand over the terrorist on the flimsy ground of his being a guest! Therefore, one had to get the fugitive and US was doing so.

Given the US history of cozying up with tyrants, despots, illegal govts, military dictatorships, repressive govts, this sudden moral rearmament in the the form of bringing Freedom and Democracy to the oppressed appeared too much of a sham and totally hollow.

The unholy haste in which the US rough rode the UN and entered Iraq left one aghast especially not allowing the UN inspectors their time to inspect. The fact that it was later discovered that Iraq had no WMD and the fact that the US took longer to discover that there was no WMD than the time the UN inspectors wanted convinced all that it was but a ploy for US to make its presence in Iraq for whatever be the reason. Some said Oil, but then that is debatable, though if indeed the Oil come under the US directions, the back of the OPEC can be broken so that they cannot manipulate the production and price which was proving detrimental to US interests apart from the rumblings that some were contemplating of changing the payment mode from the Dollar to the Euro. Iraq and Iran had done so.

The US must have got an indication of how the Middle East was shaping up as we see what is current. Therefore, it must have been imperative on the US to put into place the Cheney Defence Policy Guidelines which called for ready and quick US response to trouble areas of the world by having a base in such areas. Iraq was ideal since it sat squat in the middle of the troubled Middle East!

It is worth wondering as to if the US would be so muddle headed as to prop up the Shias in Iraq when it is hostile towards the Shias of Iran and knowing fully well of the natural affinity of both! Or that promoting an independent Kurdistan would mean losing Turkey and the control of the strategic Bosporus!

It is unbelievable that the US, a country which has the best brains in the world, could repeatedly pursue policies that ties itself in knots and makes the withdrawal from Iraq an impossibility.

Therefore, it is a cynical manner in which Cheney is implementing his Defence Policy that he wrote when he was the Defence Secretary?

Could be.