The buzz in the media the past week has often focussedon the release of the report by the Iraq StudyGroup. Thegroup has told U.S. President Bush to pack up thetroops’ kits and start withdrawing from Iraq immediately and have them home by early in 2008.

Whether Mr. Bush and his advisors pay anyattention to this report remains tobe seen.

What does not remain is the fact that manyhave known for a long time, the war is a disaster forthe Americans and the Bush-Cheney radicals that tookover U.S. foreign policy in 2001. They have disgracedthemselves and their country by committing a criminalact of international proportions.

To date more than 2,900 U.S. troops have lost their livesin Iraq and the estimate of wounded runs from 20,000to 100,000. In addition, tens of thousands of Iraqishave been killed in this misadventure.

It is more than likely that the future will see thecustomary hand-wringing, finger-pointing and such inWashington and in academic circles about who “lostIraq.” Of course Iraq, if they ever had it to beginwith, was lost the day that they started a war thatthey couldn’t win against considerable advice fromsenior military officers and foreign serviceprofessionals.

Using an invasion to unseat thestable government of Saddam Hussein has proven to beanalogous to collecting honey by smashing up beehives. Lots of stinging and not much honey, and inthis case a future possibly too unstable to predict.

Iraq is not a homogenous society, and less than 100years ago not even a country. That the Baathistsunder Saddam managed to hold it together and build oneof the more secular and secure societies in the regionis an accomplishment the value of which seems to havebeen lost in the minds of the radicals in Washington.

And now that they have destroyed that society and theglue that held it together, all of the world will haveto deal with the aftermath as factions and powers inthe region struggle for a solution that will protecttheir interests.

Arabs, Kurds and Turks all have a direct interest inthe fate of Iraq, and those interests are in conflict.Add to this significant religious conflict between twocompeting versions of the Muslim faith jockeyingviolently for control of the country and the result isa witch’s brew of murderous hatred and fear that maytake decades to put back in the bottle.

What is now Iraq was, at the end of the First World War,part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The settlement ofthat war led us directly to the current mess theAmericans have gifted us with. In exchange for theircooperation against the Turks in the war, the Britishpromised the Arabs of the region independence.

However, in the settlements that broke up the OttomanEmpire after the war, the British and the Frenchdivided up much of the Middle East amongst themselvesinstead of keeping their promise to the Arabs. Inaddition, the region of Mosul in what is nownorthwestern Iraq was promised to Turkey, a promisethat fell by the wayside.

Turkey still has an interest in the oil-rich Mosulregion which is populated by Turkomen and Kurds. Inaddition, there are significant contiguous Kurdishpopulations in Syria, Turkey and Iran, and the Kurdswould like nothing more than to have an independentKurdistan.

Of course, such a state would be a directthreat to the surrounding nations as their own Kurdishpopulations would pose the threat of wanting autonomyif not outright secession. In fact, Kurdish rebels andthe Turks have been at war for years and both Turkeyand Iran have shown concerns over development in theKurdish portion of Iraq.

Without a strong central government in Iraq with theability to contain and control the competing factionsin the country, the resulting internal chaos may welldrag in the surrounding countries seeking either toprotect their own interests, or even capitalize on theinstability by expanding their own influence andcontrol over parts of the region and its resources.

The appearance of such a central government does notlook very likely at this point thanks to theAmericans’ folly, and the lives of hundreds ofthousands of people are in jeopardy as a result.

There are a number of lessons to be learned from thisgrievous and criminal adventure, along with itsrelated conflict in Afghanistan. Whether those inpower learn these lessons and bring about a seachange in the way that countries like the UnitedStates and its allies conduct their internationalaffairs or not is a question for which the world awaits ananswer. One can hope.