It has been evident well before 9/11 that George Bush would invade Iraq in the name of the United States of America. The car- nage, the sav- agery, the tribal, sectarian and feudal brutality was foreseen by many, including me. Some of us have been writing and speaking against this butchery since Bush took office. Our choice before invasion and civil wars was: "Pray God, don't do this. Don't do this in God's name. Don't do this in our name." We failed.

The butchery began. And it was aided, abetted and applauded by corporate killers. Even a number of religious bodies have dared to mock God by declaring this slaughter a just war. A just war, indeed. Hogwash.

Now, our choices are bleak. In fact, there is really but one choice. We can stop now. Or stop in one year, two years or, as Thomas Friedman now says, in 10 years. After which, he says, we will have built a new Iraq from the ground up. And one that will be safe, democratic, free. He's as wrong now as he has been from day one of this butchery, which he has favored from that day. With all his knowledge, he does not understand the fundamental instability of violence. Once we turn to violence, all bets are off. And no one is in charge. Only Karma. Utterly Darwinian. God is not in sight.

The reality, from my point of view, is that there will be civil war immediately after we leave, now or in 10 or 40 years. Indeed, Iraq now is in civil meltdown, several steps lower than civil war. In civil war, two or more sides, clearly visible and known, wage war and then make peace. Eventually. In Iraq, and in some other Middle Eastern states, the necessary prerequisites to modern states do not exist. For example, a rule of law community; and nation-states, whose constituent parts have been self-made and defined. In fact, the Middle East was, in large part, the creation of the West, as the carnage ending WWI ended. The War to End All Wars, in the words of Field Marshall Archibald Wavell, who served under Allenby in Palestine, was followed by a "Peace to End Peace." For here, the boundaries of much of the Middle Eastern states were violently and artificially created by the imperialists of Europe, as the 19th and 20th centuries collided. When we leave, no matter when, the fractionalized brutalized remnants of what was never really a nation will begin to rebuild their own nation their own way, congruent with their rich history of Islam. All we can do, really, is to beg their pardon, and leave. Now.

This has all been about oil. Oil does not exist under North Korea. It is in Iran. And Iraq. It seems God erred. God did not know that the Bush family and a few sheiks in Saudi Arabia, owned that oil. It was all supposed to be under Texas. Would that God could get the big picture.