We hope the Americans will stay in Iraq forever.
Unthinkable! Who would say such a thing?
Moderate Iraqis, that's who.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=...2-042705-8259r
Before the war, I posted screeds from some of the "human shields" who went into Iraq and, for the first time, brought back the talk from the Iraqi street. And the talk:
human shields? How much did Saddam pay you? We desperately want the war!
Unthinkable! But the man on the street had not been truly consulted until then. Now that it turns out that Al Jaz was bought by Saddam, no right-minded Iraqi would talk frankly to a journalist. It took regular humans riding in Baghdad taxis to get the real view, because the people were too afraid to speak up under most circumstances. And because we bought the journalists' view of it, we had no idea. (Well, non-Cellarites had no idea...)
Today Instapundit links to this story from one of those human shields, who GOES BACK to Baghdad now to see what it's really like. Don't you know, it's still the same situation -- and the average Iraqi on the street still won't speak up.
"We hope they stay forever" is the true feeling of the silent majority in Iraq, contrary to what is reported.
The logic is very simple -- the Iraqis do not trust their leaders. Faced with a very complicated situation of a 60 percent Shiite majority, a former police state, Iran at their doorstep trying with all its might to destabilize their country, and desperately relieved and happy to be finally liberated from nearly 30 years of Saddam, they want the United States to stay.
The greatest fear of the man on the street is that the Americans will tire and leave. "We pray that they stay and stay forever" is the feeling of the vast majority, but they look both ways before they say it.
If you read the entire article you will read of Shi'ite leaders threatening families with rape, murder, kidnapping and arson if they do not follow Islamic law.
I recognize the real enemy, do you?
A couple of weeks ago Rumsfeld pointedly said from his podium that the US would not allow Iraq to turn into a religious theocracy. There was a day of murmuring at the time. But Rumsfeld was dead-on correct to make his statement. His utter frankness even took me aback a little, and I'm used to it. But what it communicated was not brazen nerve, but an understanding of what the situation really is -- an understanding that almost all of us lack.
Say - if it was only about oil, we'd make deals with the new Shi'ite fanatics to give them support and arms in exchange for pro-US/anti-Europe oil programs.