Father of Aardvarks -- "Losing Hearts and Minds"

Mark Lynch put together a tidy post. I don't think I can excerpt it without spoiling the effect so I am stealing the whole thing...

in search of Arab moderates

I heartily support the idea of the United States trying to mobilize Arab and Muslim moderates against extremists. But here's the thing: if you go looking for "Arab moderates" and you mainly find them in the palaces of pro-American dictators, odds are you aren't looking in the right place. Maybe the overwhelming majority of actual moderate voices in the region are just too busy denouncing your policies and complaining about how you've spent the last five years undermining their position to meet up with you. Listening to Bush and Rice talking about Arab moderates, I can only think of the immortal Inigo Montoya: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

You may not have time to follow all the links, so don't miss his two-year-old piece from Foreign Affairs. (Which is from something he wrote in 2003.)

Notice not once did he actually come right out and say "I told you so."
Lots of us are trying hard not to say such things...but sometimes it just slips out.