I understand how, I just don't understand why

Maybe like me, you've been pondering the case of this administration and invasion of Iraq. Maybe like me, you're truly confounded by the administration's arrogance and seeming disregard for the aftermath of the invasion, an apparent total lack of recognition for the resistance that the U.S. military would likely face after Saddam's paper army was dispensed with in the first month of the "conflict".

Maybe like me you've wondered how a democratic government would be set up in Iraq that would simultaneously and obstensibly be responsive to the demands of the population while paying homage to its American benefactors.

Maybe like me you've wondered just what it was about Iraq that got the fires going in the bellies of the PNAC. Oil? Sure, I guess, to an extent. But I'll admit it's never satisfied me completely, this natural resources rationale.

Maybe like me you've even taking to wondering if the ambitions for the war were really as simple as the desire for greater world hegemony now that the Soviet Union was for all practicable purposes, off the stage. But hegemony for what purpose?

Maybe like me you've found yourself wondering that I understand the how, I just don't understand the why, like some Winston Smith apparation from 1984 come to life.

In recent months many of us liberal bloggerers have engaged in a much deserved revelry of disbelief and criticism of this hapless administration as it attempts to spin itself out of the trouble of insurgent numbers and attacks, indefinite forecasts of troop needs, the endless cycle of keeping National Guardsmen and other part timers on past their agreed to service periods and then not adequately providing for them or their families needs, of having the temerity to not provide the military with adequate protection and armor, and on and on the seemingly endless circus of mistakes, incompetence, and national burden continues.

And maybe like me you've started to think that after each insurgent attack or election, or hand over of sovereignty or whatever, that plans will be made to peacefully leave Iraq and leave the country and its oil to the people that live there.

But maybe like me you've regretfully come to believe that this is all a farce, that there is no end sought, that the administration had no exit plan because it didn't plan an exit. Maybe like me you've come to believe that the administration wasn't just unprepared for the insurgent response, that it didn't much care one way or the other how rebellious Iraqis responded the American occupation. Sure, we realize, American troop leaders no doubt would have preferred a less violent transition to American rule, but ultimately, the condition of ongoing Iraqi counterattacks is just immaterial to the task at hand, and that is to establish a foothold of military bases in the country and stay as long as we feel like it there and for whatever reason.

Maybe like me you've come to realize the administration knew that the circumstances of ongoing war, endless battles, serve a purpose for the military and corporate elite in democratic countries as in any other country. Maybe like me you've come to believe that the administration believes in war because it serves to distract the country from more meaningful debates about Who Governs? and enables the expansionist needs of American capitalism to be served.

Maybe like me you've come to believe that whatever happens in Iraq (elections, insurgent attacks, constitution unveilings, etc) over the next several months and years will not change anything, and that besides, we don't have any real idea of knowing what's actually going on over there anyway.

Maybe like me you've reached that point where you realize that more verbage about Iraq is close to senseless and are starting to wonder what we do next.