I'm off travelling in Europe and it's hard to always get to a computer to make updates. I do have some thoughts backlogged to share though.
I've come to realize that part of the reason that Americans and the French and Germans don't agree about Iraq is that they are not basing their opinions on the same information. Before I left for Europe I watched Deutsche Welle TV and they did a story about the sorry state of an electrical power plant, discussed its critical importance, and noted that the US had done nothing to help nor allowed for anyone else to come in and help. Several days later (a few days ago now) I saw the same story on French TV news, and nothing had changed.
Meanwhile, in the US we get to see all the touchy-feely feel good stories about the random good things that did result. I don't doubt that there were in fact some, and I never doubted that there would be. But a handful of good things doesn't outweigh a pile of bad things and we need to be aware of them. We can't steer a legitimate policy if we have no concept of where we should be steering it to.