Back when the war had just barely started, I got an email from my penpal in mainland China. He wanted to know why Bush was going to war when there were so many domestic problems he hadn't solved. The only thing I could think to tell him was that it's easier to keep down a population that's in a continuous state of war or revolt, and that it was easier to start a war overseas than to get one under way here.

Unfortunately, stuff like this makes me think I was probably right. Goddamn it.