Wednesday, April 09, 2003

As Sean-Paul said, the footage of Saddam's statue being brought down on CNN right now is extremely compelling.

There has been a lot about this situation that has been, to be blunt, deeply weird. The apparent "melting away" of the Republican guard, the relatively poor defense of Baghdad (especially compared to Basra earlier), and the lack of much in the way of WMDs. I just hope that this isn't an attempt to replicate Stalingrad, with the army waiting until the Americans get settled in before attacking through surprise. (Can't remember where I read about the possibility of that tactic.. I believe it was UPI). Seems unlikely though.

One thing that really grabbed me was the placement of a pre-Gulf War flag on the statue base, the one without the Allahu Ackbar bit on it. Perhaps we're seeing the reassertion of the basic secularity of the Iraqi people? If so, that might make things somewhat easier

In any case, it would appear that this is moving into the occupation phase. At least in Iraq. Syria, perhaps, is another matter.

No comments:

Post a Comment