sometimes, i really wish we'd just bring back the monroe doctrine

this morning, the cover of the new york post told us that saddam husseinís regime was over, illustrated by a picture of a capsizing statue of said dictator.

over.

I wonder what they mean by that. because if you have any sense whatsoever, you know that this is far, far from over. even if the military has, miraculously, toppled husseinís regime. have killed him, left him for dead in the desert (because you know thatís the only way Kaiser bush is going to drop this particular bone), destroyed his cheese danish and everything that it stands for, the end of this campaign is far from sight. not even close. even when the fighting has stopped, when weíve finally emasculated the Iraqi people to the point that weíve decided that their mere existence no longer poses a threat to American ideals (ëmrrkn,í as the Kaiser would say), there will still be more. after that happens, then comes the cleanup. thatís when we will continue with our favorite trend of bucking the wishes and ideals of the rest of the world and install an American-backed puppet government, congratulating ourselves all the time for liberating the poor, backwards Iraqis from that strange way of existence they called life. never for a second allowing ourselves to believe that maybe, just maybe, they donít WANT to be America east. maybe they want something different. maybe, just maybe, theyíre capable of something more.

now donít get me wrong. I am no great fan of the despot formerly known as saddam. BUT, there are several things I believe. first, I donít really think that war is the way to deal with a dictator. ever. there are far sneakier, more insidious and more effective ways to deal with such things without invoking civilian casualties. second, I donít even think that weíre there because of the despot. at least, not because we feel that how heís oppressing his people is wrong. weíre there because he might have the audacity to stand in the way of us and a plentiful oil supply. for all our bleeding heart posturing, I donít think that our government is particularly interested in the welfare of the Iraqi people; itís a consideration low on the totem pole. I mean, why else call the entire campaign something so blatant and clumsy as ìoperation Iraqi freedomî if we werenít using it as the first line of defense in our smoke-and-mirrors attempt to deflect accusations towards what is probably the truth? ìno, we care about them. really! look! we even named the campaign after them!î but then, our government is clearly not all that interested in our own welfare, either, or anything we have to say, so why should they show any further interest in anyone else?

youíll have to excuse me, Iím feeling cynical today.

one final thought: yesterday, the AP was reporting that there was cheering in the streets of Baghdad as the US army moved in and took over. Did it ever occur to the reporters or the editors or whoever is in charge of giving stories the go-ahead that they were cheering because the presence of American soldiers in the area meant that the bombing was going to stop?

welcome to the occupation.