Revolutionary Moderation

Winning the battle, losing the war



So Shock and Awe is real, and it's happening now. I'm sure that's going to intensify anti-American protests.



While they were rolling forward, accepting surrenders, and driving, I think they had quieted (not silenced, but quieted) critics of the war. Maybe this could be clean and easy after all... maybe there could be some infrastructure left to build a new, democratic Iraq around.



Nope.



Osama bin Laden is starting to win the war he started on September 11, 2001, even as Saddam Hussien loses his. Anger at the degree of force used today (and likely tomorrow) against an already-demoralised regime, soldiers all ready with their white flags (not to mention the five million civilians living in Baghdad), is going to inflame the Arab world. I suggested here that bin Laden wants Islamic revolution across the Arab world (this is Dyer's theory, not mine, but it is convincing), and however precise today's attacks were, it has fed into that revolution.