[bullseyebarb]

The Iraqis missed a golden opportunity here. The message should have been - the past is dead and we are moving on to a better future. Instead, the setting was all wrong and the participants ghastly. The execution should never have been taped for public viewing. Washington was careless in the final moments of Saddam's life and this is a perfect example of America's hands-off approach which has encouraged too many meddling fingers. The Iraq government is new and weak. It needs shaping up and is likely to get that in 2007. That said, the bottom line is - Saddam is gone. Moqtada al-Sadr should be next.

It's a fact, garinda, that oil fuels our economies. There will not be any workable alternatives on a mass scale for quite some time. Therefore, stability in world oil markets is crucial.

The media and critics of the Iraq war have done a masterful job of separating it from the overall war against Islamic terrorism. However, it is an integral part of the whole.