Prison writings of revolutionary Islamist theoretician Sayyid Qutb reveal, according to Paul Berman, that he believed that...

... all over the world, humans had reached a moment of unbearable crisis. The human race had lost touch with human nature. Man's inspiration, intelligence and morality were degenerating. Sexual relations were deteriorating ''to a level lower than the beasts.'' Man was miserable, anxious and skeptical, sinking into idiocy, insanity and crime. People were turning, in their unhappiness, to drugs, alcohol and existentialism. Qutb admired economic productivity and scientific knowledge. But he did not think that wealth and science were rescuing the human race. He figured that, on the contrary, the richest countries were the unhappiest of all. And what was the cause of this unhappiness -- this wretched split between man's truest nature and modern life?

More miscalculations on the part of Bush and Co. They were expecting others to pick up the humanitarian tab while the White House crew ran the show and handed out plum contracts to their closest pals. So the LA Times reports there is still intensive infighting on the UN diplomatic front:

That France and, to a lesser extent, Russia are fighting is a sign of their continuing resentment that the U.S. and Britain skirted the United Nations to wage war.

"You have some countries saying, if America wants to invade, make them pay" for Iraq's reconstruction, said Jeffrey Laurenti, executive director of the United Nations Association. of the U.S.A., a U.N. think tank in New York. Full story