Alternative

The question isn't whether Iraq is a mess right now. By anyone's measure of civic life, it is. Some observers prefer to focus on the progress being made (there's a lot of that), but that doesn't erase the kidnappings, killings and thug law that affect too many people's lives over there. The country still has a long way to go.

But the difference in people over here is, whether they are pulling for it to succeed, or whether they are sitting back on the fence and gloating over every evidence of failure, magnifying every setback, simply because they want to see GWB stew in his juices. As though one life were worth more than 25 million. These people attach way too much importance to one Republican president.

Odd, too, how people who insist that the U.S. administration is to be damned because it has no respect for Islam, will turn around and sneer at Sistani, who, whether you agree with him or not, seems to be as clever and politically savvy as any ward boss in America, and who seems to know how to balance religious leadership and political power.