Wow, I'm impressed at your post gekko. All we ever hear in the UK is how great the UIS thinks bush is cos he had the supposed intelligence to say "let's bomb the f***ers"... cue massive jump in the opinion polls... quelle suprise...
You're also right about it being a modern Vietnam IMO... and I think Vietnam proved that even the military might of the US can't win a protracted guerilla war against a hidden enemy.
I won't go on another anti-Bush rant, like mentioning things like his abandonment of the Kyoto agreement or his total lack of regard for the constitutional policy of no state sponsored religion being enforced on people. Oh whoops, did I just say that? I said I wasn't going to mention it and now I have. Damn and curse... and oh no! my delete button doesn't work either. What a shame.
Anyway, as far as Enron goes, from the news we hear here, it seems that some of president Blair's mob have been embroiled in the whole caboodle as well... accusations of bribery, corruption and the whole other nine yards run amok whilst Pres. Blair looks a bit red in the face... ach, it's all bollocks.
Basically it looks like Enron did what far too many big businesses do; it got very very big, then it got very very ambitious, and overstretched itself... and what with the drastic downturn in world trade, their shares dropped. When they and their investors realised they couldn't continue with what they'd started, Enron shares suddenly weren't worth the paper they were printed on. But I imagine they tried to keep this as quiet as possible in the hope that a government backhander would slip into their overdraft... which made the truth even more horrible when it broke out.
Just another example of capitalism failing again.
Just as an aside... I wonder how big the severance payments the board of directors get will be? Or how much money they smuggled into offshore accounts once they got wind of the big collapse? And I wonder how much of that money will find it's way into the pockets of those who have lost their pensions, shares and savings.
Oh and Xantar... if you ever do go in for politics, I will never speak to you again.
Plus I think it's more likely America will get an Asian pres than one who's an atheist... not that I'd want to be anyway...