I think a clash with Islam, if not with all Muslims, is inevitable; and that it inevitably involves violence. War, as such, does not bother me - bear in mind that Saddam and the Taliban used forms of government that amounted to permanent war against their own people. What bothers me is this: from 1941 on, the Americans had a pretty clear idea of how they intended to deal with conquered enemies once the war was over. In Afghanistan and Iraq, that idea seems to have been absent. In my view, Americans should have planned on the basis that they had to withdraw from Iraq within two years. If this meant leaving in place a modified Baathist regime, so be it. But it is dangerous to walk into a country and dismantle every governing institution there is; especially if the country is a part of the notoriously proud and hostile Arab world.