caliphate

it's funny how "caliphate" has become latest boogieman (boogie system of government?) that keeps the president up at night:

In a speech laced with quotes from Osama bin Laden, President Bush said on Tuesday that five years after the September 11 attacks, al Qaeda wants to set up a violent, radical Islamic caliphate based in Iraq and vowed he would not let this happen on his watch.

i don't think the establishment of a caliphate in iraq or anywhere else is all that likely. but if it does happen, it will be at least partly because of bush's decision to invade iraq. it may not be on bush's "watch", but it would be because he "let [it] happen" by unleashing chaos on that country.