That Explains It

A "highly experienced" "high ranking" American officer explains that Baghdad will not fall in just a few days' time (as originally predicted) because, "There is a big cultural difference between the U.S. and the Arab World. That makes it hard."

In other words, if the shoe were on the other foot -- if a massive and technologically superior invading armada came down from Mars with the stated goal of overthrowing the Bush Administration and "liberating" the American people, in the process raining death and destruction upon us day after day after day, poisoning the continent with radioactive weapons, not allowing any other country (or planet) to try to aid us, creating absolute chaos, littering the soil with unexploded ordnance, wiping out civilian infrastructure, cutting off an existing civilian aid programme, all while "getting the message across to educated people"; then, the rest of us -- the uneducated -- would welcome the Martians with open arms.

Or if we didn't do, it would be owing to the "cultural difference", and to the fact that the uneducated among us "want to be moved by emotion", and to Ashcroft's "very powerful enforcement and repression system". Got it.

Amazingly, this officer's testimonial is a dissenting view. The prevailing view is that Iraqi hostility is "receding day by day" and that the invading troops are more and more being given a "warm welcome".

Posted by Eddie Tews at April 2, 2003 01:35 PM