Too Much To Dream

Iraqis for the war

Iraqis speak out: Instapundit.com has all the links. Summary: they are not too thrilled about war, but they are even less thrilled about the idea that the US might go, "Aw, the peace protestors are right -- we can't drop bombs on the Children™!" and leave them in the lurch again.

Frankly, I can't understand the objections of the antiwar people. They were all about the US righting all its wrongs, and cleaning up its messes, and not abandoning people to fend for themselves. So, we are finally getting around to doing some of this, and suddenly it's the wrong thing to do? Because we can't do it with magic like Harry Potter? Twelve years of paperwork and Official Visits haven't made a dent in Saddam Hussein's arsenal or plan; the only thing that has ever worked are the constant patrols of American warplanes in the no-fly zone. Again: American arms do what bureaucrats can't.

And let me tell you something else: Arabs have been doing the paperwork dance for a lot longer than Europeans have. They practically invented the record-everything-in-triplicate mania that it took centuries for Europe to get around using. Please, I studied this: Bernard Lewis has several volumes out that are nothing but samples of the lists of everything -- every brick, teapot, gold coin, sheet of parchment, and what-have-you -- that were kept back in the days of the strength of the Muslim Empire. And tons more of this stuff is lying around untranslated, probably because it is mind-numbingly boring. (Historians of the 31st century are going to ignore our reams and piles of 1040 forms too.) And these UN and European bureaucrats think they can put one over on Saddam with their multi-digit resolutions and finicky procedures? Give. Me. A. Fucking. Break. It's all a game to him. All I can say is we had better be taking advantage of time by getting our forces in place, not doing the Clintonesque put-it-off-as-long-as-possible shillyshallying.