Terrorism Explained By Riverbend

Baghdad Burning has a new post up. She has an excuse for posting infrequently as there have been constant electrical shortages over in her neck of the woods. The post is a fresh snapshot of what conditions are like in pre-election Iraq and she ruminates on the recent news that there were no WMDs in Iraq after all, and in the War on Terror in General. An excerpt:

I hope Americans feel good about taking their war on terror to foreign soil. For bringing the terrorists to Iraq- Chalabi, Allawi, Zarqawi, the Hakeems… How is our current situation going to secure America? How is a complete generation that is growing up in fear and chaos going to view Americans ten years from now? Does anyone ask that? After September 11, because of what a few fanatics did, Americans decided to become infected with a collective case of xenophobia… Yet after all Iraqis have been through under the occupation, we're expected to be tolerant and grateful. Why? Because we get more wheat in our diets?

Terror isn't just worrying about a plane hitting a skyscraper…terrorism is being caught in traffic and hearing the crack of an AK-47 a few meters away because the National Guard want to let an American humvee or Iraqi official through. Terror is watching your house being raided and knowing that the silliest thing might get you dragged away to Abu Ghraib where soldiers can torture, beat and kill. Terror is that first moment after a series of machine-gun shots, when you lift your head frantically to make sure your loved ones are still in one piece. Terror is trying to pick the shards of glass resulting from a nearby explosion out of the living-room couch and trying not to imagine what would have happened if a person had been sitting there.

To all the blowhards in Blogville who can provide any number of explanations for why we are in Iraq, put yourself in Riverbend's moccasins and see if it all still stands as pristine logic. If so, I am sure she would entertain the notion to swap seats for the next part of the ride.


Another Good Read:

I wandered across this perfectly good explanation of why we had to invade Iraq over at Kos. I am virtually ready to suspend my belief that it was to spread democracy to those less fortunate and liberate the downtrodden. If we really cared about that, we would invade Florida.