Gloom is spreading though out the Left wing community. No one hardly mentions Iraq anymore. It has all but disappeared from the headlines of the MSM and even the case of the Italian woman’s problems has failed to register on the Left’s Radar of Rage. Even Tim at The Road to Surfdom has given the US soldiers the benefit of the doubt. On reading that, I can assure you, my ‘flabber’ was well and truly ‘gasted’ What’s going on? Desperastely seeking the web for negative Iraq stories I turned to Niall. Good old dependable Niall has written a ‘bait’ piece to lift his hit rate. I happily oblige. Over at Whom Gods Destroy, Niall is in denial preparing himself mentally for the inevitable. The outbreak of democracy in the Middle East. Say it out loud, say it often enough and you can believe it. The improving situation can not possibly have anything to do with the US presence in Iraq.

If you believe only one-tenth of Howard’s postulation that any event which occurs in the Middle East, or even remotely allied to the Middle East region occurs as a direct result of the US-led coup d`etat to overthrow Saddam Hussein, then you clearly believe in the tooth fairy, santa clause and the easter bunny.

As Naill must be the only blogger in the world who actively prevents others from linking his articles you will have to scroll down to “Strawman Plucking At Straws”. While doing that you will have to scroll past a double entry entitled ‘Howardian Wallpaper’, at least until he reads this post and deletes it. I’m not sure if it’s worth it but the offers there. In an article in today’s Australian Neo-Con Daniel Pipes cautions readers that whereas fellow Neo-Con Charles Krauthammer, of The Washington Post, writes:

“We are at the dawn of a glorious, delicate, revolutionary moment in the Middle East.”

There is a long way to go and remember Democracy also gives voters the right to elect Islamic leaders that may not necessarily improve the situation.

I, too, welcome these developments, but more warily. Having been trained in Middle Eastern history makes me perhaps more aware of what can go wrong:

Daniel is dead right but an improvement is an improvement and time will tell. I can’t see how anyone could deny that the elections in Afghanistan and Iraq were as a direct result of US involvement. I can’t see how it isn?t obvious to some that the timely death of Arafat hasn?t given birth to seeds of hope in Palestine and Israel. I can?t see how people could deny that the successful elections in Iraq have had a flow-on effect in the area. As I wrote at the very beginning of the Iraq war …” a democracy in the middle of the shit-hole that is the Middle East would give birth to hope and all the Mullahs and Kings and Princes would be feeling uneasy”. They are all feeling uneasy right now. Their people are raising their eyebrows and saying, “Well? Back to the Italian Communist woman. Much has been made of the speed of the vehicle carrying Giuliana Sgrena. She says it was slow – the soldiers at the checkpoint say it was fast. The Blithering Bunney has good cover of the subject. Go there and read but I’ll tell you the bottom line now – time has differing aspects depending on how much adrenalin in your system at the time. The woman is fleeing captivity and the soldier is afraid of a car bomb blowing up in his face. To him the vehicle is doing mach one; to her it is crawling. All the pre-requisites are now in place for disaster. Tim Dunlop is right. Give the troops the benefit of the doubt and move on. Of course some loonies will accept her version that executive orders existed for the troops to kill her but most people will acknowledge she works for the Communist newspaper Il Manifesto and will think; She would say that. Wouldn’t she? There will be plenty more mistakes but for the first time in my life I am optimistic about the Middle East and as the saga continues it will be increasingly difficult to deny George Bush’s contribution.