"We bomb, therefore we bomb," seems to be Washington's policy toward Iraq. Ten years of sanctions and military strikes have failed to tame or oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Yet the Bush administration thinks only of doing more of the same.

The earlier Bush administration established economic sanctions, created an inspections regime to forestall development of weapons of mass destruction, and imposed a "no-fly" zone throughout much of Iraq to inhibit military action against Shiite and Kurdish rebels. The U.S. also backed a motley assemblage of Iraqi dissidents, hoping for a coup.

A decade later, American policy has failed. Completely.