Kaplan is continuously asking stupid questions out of willful ignorance about what the war represents.

The Iraq war is part (the opening act) of the War of Civilizations. The two main constituencies of the WOC, the Israel lobby and the Christian-right, are aggrieved enough about the Moslems already in America. They certainly don't want any more here. Moslems become citizens, they vote, they have babies who grow up and vote, and they weaken America's will to fight the WOC. No chance, pal. Bush is not as feckless or stupid as he seems; he is serving his political base as any half-way smart politician would do.

The WOC is a holy war with a purpose to subjugate Moslems, and kill those who resist. The short-term tactic is always to set Moslems against each other (which is fortunately easy to do.) If you look closely at the "surge," it turns out to be this: at a government level we support the Shia; at a militia level we are now supporting the sunnis; to create a stand-off and arrive at a divide-and-rule scenario. It worked !! But the fight is merely postponed. Sooner or later, our "allies" in both the Shia government and the Sunni militias will be killed, and not by mistake, but as a predictable result of US policy. That is how divide-and-rule works. Coaxing foolish Iraqis to work for the occupation and then be killed later is another variation on the theme. So what? The WOC crowd is OK with that. There is no mistake being made here.