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I R Collidge Studint

And now a few words from one Andrew Prunier (subscription required, alas), a disciple of the Ivory Tower on the occasion of the uprising in Fallujah:

My suggestion would be to level the mosque and everyone else in it to send a message that dissidence will not be tolerated. Those filthy Al Qaeda wannabes deserve no less. However, that's an impossibility, for two reasons: 1) it's an election year, and 2) you'd be able to hear the Democrats' screams from Alpha Centauri. I don't care about what the media's saying about "Iraqi discontent" - those people chanting "Death to America" are no more representative of the entire Iraqi population than the anti-war movement at home is representative of America's population. Cutting and running won't help either - to anyone who thinks it does, remember Somalia. That worked real well, didn't it?

Interesting. Intriguing. I say, I wonder what might your observations be on the current mood of the Iraqi people during these days of, er, "liberation."

What bothers me is that we're trying to help these people, and they're spitting in our faces. Not all of them, obviously, but enough to cause problems. Aren't things better over there now than they were under Saddam? Coalition forces have brought state-of-the-art medical care to Iraqi civilians, helped restore the vibrant economy that Saddam wrecked, and reduced unemployment from 70% under Saddam to just above 10% now. There's no longer any need for mass graves, mass prisons, or the silencing of political dissidents (the people we're fighting now are NOT political dissidents or the politically correct "militants," they are as much on Saddam's side as the Fedayeen as far as I'm concerned.) The Coalition has rebuilt most of what we destroyed during the three weeks of the war, and for once, everybody in Iraq has, or will have by June 30, a say in what their government is doing. In the words of David Horowitz, this was a wonderful war in historical terms - only 500 dead to free 25 million from one of the worst dictators since Adolf Hitler.

You know, speaking of a "need" for mass graves, I saw the most interesting post today at my dear comrade Steve Bates' site concerning the state of battle in Fallujah and our nation's efforts to win the "hearts and minds" (wonderful phrase!) of the Iraqi people. Steve himself was linking to this wry juxtaposition at Whiskey Bar between the inspiring oratory of our fearless Commander-in-Chief and this most recent example of the horrors of war, which I reproduce for the greater education of our public:

Marine engineers patrolling near Ramadi on Wednesday reported coming across a mass grave containing up to 350 bodies of Iraqis who appeared to have been killed in the fighting. It wasn't clear whether the bodies belonged to combatants, civilians or both.

Well, I'm sure there must be some logical explanation. All in due time. Perhaps Condi Rice herself might testify on the matter. Splendid! Posted by kevinmoore at April 8, 2004 02:18 PM | TrackBack