I hate to start with politics, bcause it can be so tiresome, but here goes anyway.

Fifteen years ago -- can you believe it ? -- was Operation Desert Storm. President George I invaded Iraq from Kuwait after setting up forces in Kuwait and the previously sacrosanct Saudi Arabia. After 100 hours, the invasion ended. There were reasons -- Bush could not doublecross the allies he had brought into this (disgusting little) war. And there was another reason: Iraq was an inherently unstable country, with three minorities inside, one of which was also outside. If the US went in and occupied Iraq, how would it ever get out? Better just be glad that it got its new bases and a chance to tear down Iraq from the outside.

But after a couple of years, or less, the thought came: "How would we ever get out? Duh! That's exactly what we want!" And so the oligarchs worked to get us into a war in Iraq. Luckily Bill Clinton evidently saw through the charade and kept us out -- but at a cost. They had him impeached because of this offense (although that was not said publicly), a cautionary warning to future Presidents, and they hamstrung him in his conduct of foreign policy, which damaged our relations in Yugoslavia and Russia among other things. Luckily, Clinton was an inveterate womanizer, and they went after him on that basis, with Whitewater as a backup. Suppose he had been pure? The only choice would have been a bullet.

Anyway they had better luck in 2000 with two complaisant candidates for President. Considering the pain and torture of having a Democratic malfeaser, which I remembered from the Vietnam era, I was selfishly glad that George II won. I don't think the last four years would have been much different, although it seems nobody talks about that. Anyway, he followed the orders and took us back into Iraq. One of the goals was to make Iraqis miserable, which was predictable since the country had gotten uppity, being the only non-Christian country wityh both population and oil. But that's hard for even the Republicans to do, considering that they were already terminally miserable after a dozen years of sanctions. In fact, the US kindly got rid of Saddam Hussein, who had been supported in the past by -- the US; and it got rid of the economic sanctions, which the US had laid on the people of Iraq. It seems one can only be so bad before it turns around.

So now we are there and can't leave, we can complain how awful it is, which the oligarchs like since they like us to have the blues. We can say "Just say leave!", but that doesn't work, although it might not be worse than the alternative. They've got it made. For now anyway.