One thing that strikes me from time to time is how amazingly hollow the whole WoT was and is: hollow in that it seems to attract an incredible number of chancers, scam artists, blaggers, fantasts and plain, vanilla opportunists. America lost its senses on that fateful day and everybody piled in for fun and profit, from Bout to Chalabi, from Hirsat Ali to Galloway. The whole thing is an enormous system of outdoor relief for the dodgy.