NO SURPRISE

In more setbacks for the Bush administration,another U.S. soldiers dies, and some Sunnis and Shiites make friendly overtures to one another against the American and British occupation. But you could see this one coming for a long time. Before anything else, a foreign power that has invaded a country and is building four super bases is a threat to a nation's identity.

The United States is not a liberator to the Iraqis, but a conqueror that is increasingly a target for homegrown insurgence. This war will end in a shameful end for America because there is no love for the country in the Middle East. Even the arch conservative, William F. Buckley has conceded the Iraq war has failed miserably and there is no honourable way to disengage from the morass.

---Izzy