] Intelligence professionals should always resist the temptation to
] become policy advocates because, being mostly human, intelligence
] analysts want to be right -- and when they are advocates of a strategy,
] they will be tempted to find evidence that proves that policy to be
] correct and ignore evidence that might prove the policy in error.
] Advocating policies impairs the critical faculties. Besides, in a world in
] which opinions are commonplace, there is a rare value in withholding
] opinions.

] The United States' invasion of Iraq was not a great idea.
] Its only virtue was that it was the best available idea
] among a series of even worse ideas.

] This means the goal of reshaping Iraqi society is beyond the reach
] of the United States. Iraq is what it is. The United States, having
] performed the service of removing Saddam Hussein from power,
] cannot reshape a society that has millennia of layers.

I guess William Safire would say that future "revisionist reportage" will blast Stratfor as "ignoble ethnic-racist" "naysayers."

Strategic Forecasting decides to offer an opinion...