Intriguing article in the New York Post available through Front Page Magazine—whatever that is—that discusses what’s really happening in Iraq. It’s conclusion is that the distress in Iraq felt by everyday people is both overreported and overhyped. I told you it was interesting!
<blockquote>Elsewhere, the coalition presence is either accepted as a fact of life or welcomed. On the 4th of July some shops and private homes in various parts of Iraq, including the Kurdish areas and cities in the Shiite heartland, put up the star-spangled flag as a show of gratitude to the United States.</blockquote>
One wonders why facts such as this weren’t reported more widely. This article is a refreshing look at post-war Iraq that comports with what I expected to happen, but thought hadn’t: gratitude and hope for the future.
[UPDATE (7/25/03): The London Times has an exclusive interview with Uday Hussein’s personal bodyguard. It reveals the movements of Saddam Hussein and his sons during and after the war. It amazes me when dictators stay in their capital city as their nations crumble around them. Hitler had the same delusion as Saddam did in the final days: that they could personally turn the course of the war in their favor. It’s a bizarre conceit. If I were in their shoes, I would get in a submarine (in Hitler’s case) or in a small car and hightail it with all the cash and valuables I could muster to a safe country like Argentina or Syria.]