“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

Admiral Yamamoto after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

The United States overthrew Saddam Hussein’s weak, brutal state and replaced it with virtually no state at all. We have not given Iraqi’s their freedom because freedom requires order which the United States from the very beginning has not provided. The result has been total chaos. THE WAR IS LOST. All we have accomplished is to awaken the sleeping giants in the Middle East, filling them with a terrible resolve. Shia and Sunni Iraqis are now turning on one another rekindling their ancient primordial hatreds. They’re turning on one another because when the state fails in its most basic tasks such as keeping you alive, instinctively, you turn to anyone who offers safety and security. And in this dismal environment, the middle class have fled the country. Among those who remain are activists such as Muqtada Al Sadr who now leverages his power to provide services such as jobs, safety and the militia to back it up.

THE WAR IS LOST. It’s time to build a table large enough to accommodate everyone that must be involved in the peace process. EVERYONE!