"Our hopes betrayed: How a US blueprint for post-Saddam government quashed the hopes of democratic Iraqis" by Kanan Makiya

A blistering critique of America's plans for Saddam's future, by the man who told us a few months ago that we had to invade if there was a 5% or 10% chance that democracy would result.

"[The U.S. plan's] driving force is appeasement of the existing bankrupt Arab order, and ultimately the retention under a different guise of the repressive institutions of the Baath and the army. Hence its point of departure is, and has got to be, use of direct military rule to deny Iraqis their legitimate right to self-determine their future," Makiya writes now.