Incautious readers might construe from my recent posts on the subject that I think the war is proceeding poorly. In fact, this is not the case. I was never an optimist, thinking that the war would be over in just a week's time. But neither am I a pessimist, imagining among the Iraqis a level of strategic and tactical command that could overwhelm - even in one place, even for more than a few hours - the coalition forces. The war will be won by the US forces and the coalition, even if the battles grow yet more difficult than they have thus far proved.

War itself is never a "best case scenario", and no war ever proceeds along such lines.

However, I am not at all sure that the peace will go even as well as the worst of the military snafus. At what cost will this victory be achieved? At the very least, there will be blood between America and Iraq and it remains to be seen if we can negotiate a satisfactory wergeld. I do not have high hopes.

And, of course, there is still the rest of the world to consider.