Oh dear, John, why have you fallen into the trap that nearly ever U.S. MSM writer seems to be propogating these days ?

Whilst the remark,

"The White House has no viable plan for encouraging Iraqis to take responsibility for themselves, for winning allies in the Middle East or for rallying support at home."

Is 100% correct, the majority of writers and many people fail to understand that current conditions in Iraq ARE THE AFTER PLAN.

The current Administration has no plans to pressure Iraqi leaders to do anything, other then to follow orders from Washington.

The U.S. is NOT flexable, never has been, and never will be.

"The long-term basing of troops would be a weight perpetually carried by the U.S. military, taxpayers and diplomats trying to present the country as a peace-loving force."

I take it with the above, you're havin a go at satire, right ? The U.S. as a peace loving force ? WOW, really funny that one.

It would seem the bases in Germany and Japan since World war 2 don't seem to count with you, despite the fall of the threat of communism, these bases are still there and happily supported by the U.S. Military/taxpayers/diplomats, and that is the warning shot for Iraq, where military bases will also stay for the foreseeable future. Mark my words.

"Always disinterested in the facts, this White House repeatedly has tried to frame Iraq based on references to other places and times. Iraqis were going to toss roses at our troops a la the liberation of France. As in post-war Japan and Germany, Iraqi society would regenerate into a healthy democracy"

There you have it in a nutshell, the Administration is telling us where they learnt their lesson on the total destruction of a country and then rebuilding it in accordance to their own needs/wishes. Has it escaped you all, this was done in Germany, Japan and the Phillipines, (Vietnam too, if they had gotten away with it) as they kindly keep telling us, but people refuse to listen and accept what they're being told.

The plan is/was to take Iraq back to the dark ages, destroy it completely, make things so bad for it's people, they would look upon the invaders as their saviours, ala Germany, Japan, allowing the victors to build and implement societal/governance changes more acceptable to them and at the same time, infiltrate their puppets deep into the Governing mechanisms.

The ongoing turmoil in Iraq,( tells me at the least) that their plan is on track, (despite claims made to the contrary by their detractors) though not going exactly as they wished, but still on track nevertheless.

Stability in Iraq, a stable government by and of it's own people, security, again by and of it's own people will negate the need for American presence and that is something that simply will not be allowed in my lifetime, simply because the Iraqis cannot be trusted to put their masters wishes/demands/desires before their own, they must be overseen, (what the heck) from my understanding of events, they are not even being allowed that, which again, just proves what I'm say is true.

Therefore, the sooner the World begins to see the wood for the trees, the sooner we can all do something about this issue, but as long as we fail to see the truth and the reality, it will simply be perpetuated.