On the Trail of the Crazy Man...

At the start of this entire Iraq mess, among the many shrill voices trying to be heard, I heard only one that made sense. Of course, this individual was a lower level career diplomat who nobody would ever listen to because of his grade level.
But he was experienced and studied on the subject so his voice among the many made the most sense. What he said was that to resolve the problem, what we needed to do was to talk to the tribal chiefs and the leading mullahs who were respected in the land.
My God, man, this is so obvious...and yet everyone was so busy asserting their own will and their own God-like beliefs that his views were totally overlooked. Another, a military man not possessing four stars, suggested that we divide the land into areas for the Kurds, the Shiites and the Sunnis. I don't remember their names but I do know that if we had listened to these two wise beyond the years professionals, we might have avoided spending 400 billion dollars to achieve nothing and we might have spared the lives of more than 2700 young men and women--our most precious resources--and the disfigurement and maiming of countless thousands more in a pursuit that is totally senseless!....and we might have avoided having all of Islam poised against us and the disharmony that now reigns supreme in our land. All because we follow a crazy man...