so true

Steven Vincent's last post on his Red Zone blog was not entirely in keeping with the optimistic Bushite party line. He tells of the cluelessness of an American contract officer about Basran corruption, and adds:

I felt I was living in a Graham Greene novel, this about about a U.S. soldier--call it The Naive American--who finds what works so well in Power Point presentations has unpredictable results when applied to realities of Iraq. Or is that the story of our whole attempt to liberate this nation?

[source: Mark Kleiman: Wisdom from beyond the grave]