The only number that is wildly divergent has to do with the number of US dead. It happens also to be by far the most sensitive number for the US military and its necessary public support among American citizens back home.

President Bush insisted in public appearances that US forces will win the war in Iraq. In a nearly completely overlooked statement, Rumsfeld told a television news show the very same week, ‘The coalition cannot defeat the insurgency.’

Nobles are confronted by ample evidence of their fundamental identity with the people they oppress. Try though they might, they can't escape the human condition, a condition marked by suffering, decay, and death.

Stiglitz’s conclusion is that ‘political globalization has been outstripped by economic globalization’ and that political institutions of a global nature need to be created to deal with a thoroughly globalized economic reality.