Are the Iranians finally starting to throw off the chains of the mullahs?

If so, and it happens before the election, I'm sure that John Kerry will be quite disappointed. He'll probably send Joe Lockhart out to complain that the new government is a US puppet.

I am skeptical about this. There was supposed to be a revolution two years ago. It is true that the mullah run government is corrupt and the people are getting sick of it (just like the Shah's government in the late 70's). However, the mullahs have clung to power far longer than anyone predicted 10-15 years ago.

I'm so depressed over this. The fact that Saddam had everyone snookered everone on (or managed to ship out) his WMDs is going to make it politically much more difficult for us to act against Iran's Mullah regime when the time comes.

I'm so depressed over this. The fact that Saddam had everyone snookered everone on (or managed to ship out) his WMDs is going to make it politically much more difficult for us to act against Iran's Mullah regime when the time comes.

That should have been expected. Saddam Hussein has a history of using relatively friendly countries to store his valuable military equipment. I imagine, for example, that several countries have whatever is left of his air force (I'm thinking Iran, Syria, and Sudan). He did it in the war with Iran, he did it when he invaded Kuwait.

US intelligence obviously blew it, but it's not clear to me whether it was because of the flaws in the intelligence community or the extraordinary interference by high level administration officials including Rumsfeld, Tenet, and others (perhaps the latter sprung from the former). I think we'll have long term repercussions both from the bad intelligence that Colin Powell presented to the United Nations as fact and from the illegal torture commited on "suspected terrorists" by the US military and intelligence in such places as Abu Ghraib.

Finally, a number of administration officials made really irresponsible statements prior to the war on how easy it would be. In particular, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rove, and Perle come to mind. If they had maintained discipline, I think foes of Bush would have a lot less ammunition to play with.

My point here is that Saddam Hussein was a little sneaky, but he wasn't the one who squandered the momentum that Bush gained from September 11 and its aftermath.

Frankly, I think these setbacks will result in a more prudent administration. They needed a dose of reality. Perhaps too risk-adverse, but unlikely to massively commit the US to large scale warfare in the Middle East.

Wait a second... Saddam never had an air force. Bush is a liar! He never had scud missiles either. He was a saint I tell ya.