Dubya is struggling in his own political purgatory, for the sin of incompetence. That's continued bad news for the soldiers in Iraq, where the suffering and dying continues unabated. The administration that was so anxious to throw scores of thousands of healthy young Americans into the flames of war now has no idea how to get them out.

Dick is simultaneously running from questions about his role in the Valerie Wilson affair and fighting like mad to block any measure that would outlaw torture by the C.I.A. His former top aide, Scooter Libby, one of the original Iraq war zealots, is now an accused felon who is seldom seen in public unaccompanied by defense counsel.

In Iraq the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran the country during the crucial first year after Saddam's fall — the period when an effective government might have forestalled the nascent insurgency — was staffed on the basis of ideological correctness and personal connections rather than qualifications. At one point Ari Fleischer's brother was in charge of private-sector development.

"Plan" indeed… "Crusade". These guys are so incompetent they're lucky they don't just choke on their own spit.

The History Channel overstates their potential for intellectual grasp.