De-mythologizing the situation in Iraq is going to be hard if for no other reason than the liberal media has a head start on the truth. They will always react violently to the shock of the light of truth. Mainly because the dems are so accustomed to preaching in the dark. One other problem is that since way back before the first Gulf War we have had no idea what was going on in the Middle East...and a lot of the Near East for that matter... Our intel was non-existent and the State Dept was worthless as well.(Witness the Carter administrations stumbling about in '79) So now we are playing catch up. We'll get there, but not as surely had we maintained any kind of understanding of what that blank space on the map was about.
Good post. If for no other reason our presence in the heart of the ME will be positive. W building the largest consulate in the world in Baghdad, and big ears in Afghanistan makes the cost of the wars, to future intel worth it. Rest assured we will not caught fat, dumb, and happy as was the result of the Toon years.