From the indispensible site Watching America, comes this translation from Kuwait’s Arab Times that in effect says the U.S. has finally realized it must use “overwhelming force” (the Powell Doctrine) in Iraq:
FOUR years after invading and occupying Iraq, allowing thousands to drown in lakes of blood and forcing huge numbers to migrate to other countries to escape sectarian genocide, the Americans have woken up to reality. The Americans have begun to realize that the democracy they were trying to implant in the land of darkness hasn’t caught root, and that they have failed to ensure either security or stability. The Americans came to Iraq with their own belief system, which is based on freedom and democracy.
In the attempt to create a new and democratic Iraq, the Americans inadvertently endangered both the Arab and Islamic worlds by opening that country’s doors to terrorists and others [Baathists, al-Qaeda, etc.] who thirsted for revenge and were eager to divide Iraq along ethnic and sect lines. The Americans have finally managed to identify their real enemies, after realizing that they had become hostages to Iran, Syria and religious sects in Iraq. They have now concluded that before a new, free, democratic Iraq with an open economy can be established, that nation must first be cleaned of all intruders.
For over four years, the blood of innocents has soaked Iraqi soil. Now that the Americans have finally come to understand the truth, job one must be to attack the death squads and the influence of Iran.
Read it all.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.