Good people that were misled by bad intelligence

Gosh, so many good people were being misled about Iraq. Guys like Darth Cheney were just doing the best they could with what they knew at the time. Sure.  Tom Tomorrow has it nailed; Jeb doesn't.

What a strange game!

Dear Mr. President,
Let's keep this simple.  War is a strange game; the only winning move is not to play.  This lesson should be clear to you by now.  The USA did not win in Iraq; it has not won in Afghanistan.  And now you have even less clear goals in dealing with Syria.  So let's just resist the terrible temptation to play with all those military toys no matter what the toy-makers and the people who have these toys say.  Understand that they like to make things go boom; it's good for their bidness you know.  So take in an old movie, WarGames (1983) comes to mind.  And then we'll see if you can learn.

Neocon foreign policy bombs

The Phytophactor generally stays away from political topics because it's all just so depressing, however botany is a field where you get to travel a great deal, and as such you get to see the USA from many different perspectives if you take the trouble to actually talk to people in other countries by avoiding club med type resorts, packaged tours, and the usual tourist traps. Our foreign policy has not made me very proud because rather than being based on any real principles, our actions have been quite self-serving and short-sighted. Although not happy about the resulting situation, it is time for the USA's neocon adventure in Iraq to end. Rather than bring about a "friendly" democracy by the removal of a dictator under false pretenses, the presence of troops actually creates an armed resistance, a boost to the wrong factions, and an overall negative reaction from neighboring countries. So here's to the people of Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. They have done more to undermine other dictators and repressive regimes than anything our foreign policy ever accomplished. Can you imagine what a shambles things would be if that old fuddy-duddy, but hawkish McCain had been elected? Can you imagine the size of the mess if a hawkish numbscull like Perry gets elected? Too bad our foreign policy didn't do better by the Iraqi people. Like us, maybe the Tunisians won't get the government they deserve, but it'll be the one they voted for. And it's time people in the USA remembered the neocons who started this mess and what an outmoded, self-defeating, simple-minded foreign policy they construct.