Looking for a realistic assessment of what's going on in Iraq? Read the following story, from today's New York Times. It's horrific.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/world/middleeast/20revenge.html?hp&ex=1164085200&en=438b8e8a360603e9&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Also, thinking briefly about some comments made by Bush over the weekend, in Vietnam of all places. Someone asked him about parallels between Vietnam and Iraq (he had to have known that that would happen), and his response was typical: the only way we'll lose is if we withdraw prematurely. We're basically guaranteed to win if we can just remain resolute, etc. A kind of reduction of war to the willpower of an occupying army. This is patently ridiculous, and it ironically affirms what Bush was trying to deny: that winning or losing depends all on us. If this isn't a rerun of Vietnam-thinking, I don't know what is.

Read the article quoted above, and you'll see that war unleashes forces of violence that "resolution" cannot restrain. It's not a matter of willpower or staying the course now: Iraq is out of our hands.