Monday, June 28, 2004

Iraqi Violence: Merely Politics as Usual

"We were expecting much worse than this. Much worse."


Written by its correspondent in Iraq, the New York Times has published an article, the type of which you will never see in a French periodical. The Dexter Filkins piece has its share of pessimism and bad news, but the underlying message undermines pretty heavily the hand-wringing yak-yak about the Iraqi quagmire, the disaster in making, the "disgusting photos", the disappointed Iraqis, the violence and the insecurity, and other descriptions in the same vein.

Newspapers, world leaders, anti-war demonstrations, the war's opponents (the majority of the given country's population, we are invariably made to understand), and much of the "street" opinion raving and ranting about Bush's war against Saddam still don't get it.

This some of the peace-camp sympathizers will say is unfair. In fact, many claim, they wish the coalition's tactics had worked. All they are doing is responding to the "dreadful news" coming out from Iraq every day, every week, every month.

Is that so?

Read the answer on www.eriksvane.com

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