One more thing before I go for the weekend. I will quote two competing opinions. One is your President's opinion. The other is the opinion of someone who is in Baghdad. In the new PR blitz about Iraq on the American public we are being told that things are going better than we know. What do you think?

First, your President...

In two appearances in New Hampshire, Bush said the situation is "much better" in Iraq than the American public has been led to believe by the news media.

"I acted because I was not about to leave the security of the American people in the hands of a madman," Bush told hundreds of troops and their families. (Who is the madman he is speaking of?)

"Who can possibly think that the world would be better off with Saddam Hussein still in power?" the president asked. "There is only one decent and humane reaction to the fall of Saddam Hussein: Good riddance."


...next the man in Baghdad...

But in fact the US has not given people a better life than the one they enjoyed under Saddam. An Iraqi businessman said acidly: "They claimed that we were smart enough to build weapons of mass destruction capable of threatening the world, but now they treat us like Red Indians on a reservation at the end of the 19th century.''

America was sure that its soldiers would be greeted by cheering crowds. Iraqi exiles in Washington had told them to expect no less, but if most Iraqis loathed Saddam it did not mean that they wanted to be occupied by a colonial regime. Many believed that their old leader had only survived in power through US support. They bitterly recalled their sufferings under international sanctions in the 1990s during which they lived in poverty while Saddam built grandiose palaces and mosques.

The most striking feature of the official US approach to the Iraqis is arrogance and ignorance. There were those in the state department who did know a lot about Iraq, but they were sidelined by the "neo-cons" and civilians in the Pentagon.

The most amazing achievement of six months of American occupation has been that it has even provoked nostalgia in parts of Iraq for Saddam. In Baiji, protesters were holding up his picture and chanting: "With our blood and with our spirit we will die for you Saddam.'' Who would have believed this when his statue was toppled just six months ago?

See ya Monday!
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 2:19 PM