Collin Levey is another very special person. Her WSJ columns are treasures.

Levey bio.

Yeah, kill those varmints first, before they can Bushwack us.

Hey, yes it DOES sound easy. The steps were:

1. Overthrown Saddam.
2. Be greeted by sweets and flowers
3. TBD
4. Use our puppet government in Iraq to force the other Arab nations to be democratic, and therefore friendly to America.
5. Bask in the glow that comes from doing a good deed and ensuring the flow of cheap oil.

And I think it’s still a valid plan.

Another bitter ender.

Unfortunate choice of words there, Collin, old boy – “using Iraq to prod the Middle East.”

Actually, I think they were using broomstick handles to prod the Middle East.

Like it or not, this country made a democratic political decision to seek to steal a march on Islamic terrorism by overthrowing Saddam and using Iraq to prod the Middle East toward reform and the greater stability that comes from democracy and economic development.

Like it or not, that country made a democratic political decision to seek to quickly enhance European unity by overthrowing the Czechoslovakian regime and using control of Poland to prod Eastern European towards reform and the greater stability that comes from alignment with German culture and technology.

S.Z.’s logic sounds a lot like South Park’s Underpants Gnomes:

1. Underpants
2.
3. Profit

We seem to have a lot of Underpants Gnomes in Washington right now.