Afer being sound asleep for the last 2 and a half years we're starting to see something of an awakening of US journalism.....

CHICAGO -- Just three months ago, America was Master of the Universe, the unassailable superpower feared by all. Today, it resembles a substitute teacher on the last day before Christmas break -- harried, confused and facing more troublemakers than it can hope to control.

The violence and chaos in Iraq have done more than short-circuit the administration's plan to bring peace and democracy to the Middle East. They've also called into question the president's vision of our international role. We thought we had the means and the will to force hostile regimes the world over to change or else be changed, at the point of an M-16. But the job now looks bigger than we bargained for.

Invading Iraq has been the obsession of U.S. policy ever since the war in Afghanistan. President Bush made it clear he would do whatever was necessary to eliminate the alleged threat posed by Saddam Hussein. But not only did the administration deceive the public about the danger, it deceived itself about what it would take to accomplish the mission.

Sneering at the Powell doctrine, which calls for overwhelming force, it decided to do as much as possible with as little as possible.

~snip~

We need to decide if we want to commit ourselves to the huge responsibility of policing the world, and if so, start turning over a bigger share of our paychecks to cover the costs. Otherwise, we'll find ourselves badly overstretched, putting American lives at constant risk for no clear purpose, with no easy way out.

Come to think of it, we're already there.