I read this interesting article by Bob Herbert in the New York Times (I hate that lousy TimesSelect, and predict it will be gone by New Year's Day).

What was so interesting about it was the speech it references, given by Lawerence Wilkerson at the New America Foundation. Colonel Wilkerson is a big fan of Bush I, but has some not so flattering things to say about W. I like his suggestion -- borrowed from George Packer's Assassins' Gate -- that Bush essentially ginned up the war "on the fly."

Wilkerson shows an extraordinary understanding of systems analysis and the kind of thinking that is paralyzing the current Administration. Whatever your belief about W, his Cronies, or Gulf War 2 (GW2), Colonel Wilkerson says quite a few things worth thinking about.

Feeling it might be equally useful, here are some (quickly found) references to some of the things mentioned in the speech:
PDD-56
James Vincent Forrestal
NY Times' review of The Assassins' Gate
Salon's Review of The Assassins' Gate
The Malmedy Massacre
Yoshiyama Awards
Colin Powell's Speech to the UN
Moorer-Radford Affair