Inferences

What can be obviously gleaned from Turner's article?

First, Turner views Bush as a simpleton, spewing out "happy thoughts" to get the American people to support this "colossal stupidity" that is the Iraq war. Corollarily, Turner has not much hope for his fellow Americans who are gullible enough to accept, hook, line and sinker, these "happy thoughts" from their simpleton President and Almighty Leader.

Second, Turner recognizes that the members of the so-called Coalition of the Willing are in it only for the "carrot." The bigger the carrot, the stronger the support. Necessarily, Turner implies that this carrot-dangling is part of American foreign policy.

Third, Turner admits that American troops sent into Iraq have never been "overwhelming" enough to ensure victory. Paul Bremer should feel vindicated.

Last but not the least, the Iraq war did not stem the tide of terrorism. It did not even begin to start to. The war only strengthened terrorist resolve and pinpointed terrorist targets, especially those of Al-Qaeda.

To fight terrorism, you need much intelligence work and an insider's understanding of the inner workings of these organizations. And you need vision, as Turner suggests. Unfortunately, Bush has neither intelligence nor vision. What he has is power. It's the classic threat of all time: power placed in the wrong hands.

The solution doesn't need a super hero like Superman. The solution lies in the American Congress, and the American people. Bush is an internal problem, like Hussein was. The difference lies in the fact that Bush' actions affected the global community so adversely, they have infringed on other countries' sovereign rights -- the right to protect the life and property of their inhabitants, the right to peaceful co-existence, the right to trade, the right to travel, etc., etc..

What right does the United States have to drag the world to war? A people has the right to self-definition. Iraq has been fragemented since the dawn of the civilized world. What gives the American government the right to shape the future of these fragmented peoples? Now that the Duelfer report is out, and WMDs in Iraq has been expressly and unequivocally declared as inexistent, what other ground is there for this "colossal stupidity" to go on? Nothing, it seems, except more colossal stupidity.