Friday, April 02, 2004

Wherever a Westerner travels in the Arab world, there is a pervasive sense of injured pride, of people humiliated by centuries of powerlessness and poverty relative to the West. Steeped in the history of the early Caliphs, Iraqis know that Baghdad 1,000 years ago was a center of learning and military prowess. Since the modern state's founding in 1921, they have been under the boot of colonial rulers, imposed kings or brutish dictators. Now, it is America's boots they feel on their necks.
Again, it is Mr. Bremer who offers a perspective. "I'm not a psychiatrist, but I think they feel somewhat guilty that they were not able to liberate themselves,"


NYT
Where will it end? In his new book, "Worse Than Watergate," John Dean, of Watergate fame, says, "I've been watching all the elements fall into place for two possible political catastrophes, one that will take the air out of the Bush-Cheney balloon and the other, far more disquieting, that will take the air out of democracy."
Paul Krugman

No comments: