With friends like these...

Former National Security Advisor (to President George H. W. Bush) Brent Scowcroft, talking to The Turkish Daily News.

Question: Hans Blix, the former weapons inspector in Iraq, says that country is worse off today than it was under Saddam Hussein. Do you agree?

Scowcroft: I don't know if it is worse, or better or what. I think it is different. If you are a Sunni you were probably better off before. If you are a Shiite you are probably better off now. Saddam maintained order by brutal suppression. Now the suppression is gone people are killing each other. So I don't know how to answer this.

Question: What went wrong? Didn't anyone tell this administration about the complex situation in that country with the Shiites, Kurds, etc.?

Scowcroft: I think the answer is obviously not.

Oh, that's it. They're all dimwits, who don't understand any of the "complexities" of the Middle East, cowboys who aren't capable of understanding the subtle nuances the way a Brent Scowcroft can. Nobody told them about the Shiites and the Kurds and the Sunnis.

Or maybe, just possibly, they knew about the complex situation, and decided that the job needed to be done anyway...