Scott Rosenberg of Salon wrote a great essay on the seemingly inevitable upcoming conflict with Iraq. Although nothing is inevitable it seems that the people in power in the states want this war to go ahead unless Saddam and his sons in Iraq flee the country. This doesn't seem likely. Here's a great passage from Scott's essay:
The president's speech tonight, full of the rhetoric of "liberty and peace," was suffused with an almost millenarian triumphalism, an attitude of certainty in U.S. victory that is no doubt borne out by the superiority of American weaponry and power and that, yet, to anyone with a sense of the twists of history, seems fatuously arrogant. War is rarely easy; the speed of the victories in 1991 Kuwait or 2001 Afghanistan was, historically, the exception, and there is no guarantee that every future American campaign will be as fast or as painless to Americans. Overconfidence breeds disaster.
Any leader who predicts certainty of victory is asking for it. War isn't predictable, especially with people like Saddam involved. If he is faced with his own destruction who knows what he'll do.