re: crashes through 8500 .. 9000? Bush has no strategy in...

re: crashes through 8500 .. 9000? Bush has no strategy in respect of incurred and escalating war debt, trade deficits and national debt. He has assumed an imperial role in strategic decision making without the knowledge and intelligence to pull it off. He has increased dramatically public spending while granting tax cuts. The US$ is unlikely to remain the global unit for much longer without direct military threat over unwilling participants.

Even the most optimistic Iraq outcome scenario predicts raised oil prices not reduced, at least for some time.

The only thing bolstering the share markets is irrational optimism. That won't last long, possibly a few months of volatility followed by an irresistable plunge.

The last electoral distraction for Bush is the Iraq war, but even if the US electorate rally around, the cost will become apparent, the enthusiasm will wane and resistance to any further sorties will harden. All this going into a pre-election phase. The real rush to war was not the weather, it was to get it over before the election runup.

The real outcome of the war will be the realisation that the US cannot afford to be the unilateral global policeman, politically or economically. The valuable element of threat has been squandered. The reality is less scary to rogue states each time the US use up their capability in each fruitless action.

Enjoy a sucker rally for weeks or months, but then expect a global depression punctuated with wars and terrorism.