I happened to stumble across this Aesop's fable tonight on the free eBooks site: www.manybooks.net
It seems to sum up the Iraq escalation quite concisely...
The Wolf and the Lamb.
A Wolf met with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify the Wolf's right to eat him. He thus addressed him:
"Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me."
"Indeed?" bleated the Lamb in a mournful tone of voice, "I was not then born."
"You feed in my pasture," the Wolf then said.
"No, good sir," replied the Lamb, "I have not yet tasted grass."
Angrily, the Wolf accused, "Verily, you drink of my well!"
"No," exclaimed the Lamb, "I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother's milk is both food and drink to me."
Upon which the Wolf seized him and ate him up, sneering, "Well! I won't remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my imputations."
MORAL: The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.