As someone who knows Iraq, speaks Arabic, and spent seven years in the Middle East, if the Iraqis believe rightly or wrongly that we come only for oil and occupation, that will begin a long bloody war of attrition....

So I dig the speech Chris Hedges gave. There's no disinformation. It places the Iraqi conflict in a historical perspective and surmises that it will only lead to more violent reactions, a very likely danger. However, I have to concede that it wasn't exactly an appropriate speech for a commencement ceremony. I mean, come on. A commencement speech is supposed to be, "The world is going to present unexpected challenges, but now that you are college graduates, stay strong, for you now posess the tools to rise up to those challenges and overcome them." Graduation is an uplifting experience. The last thing I want to hear at my graduation is, "Iraq was a cesspool for the British when they occupied it in 1917; it will be a cesspool for us as well," even if I do agree with it.