Revolutionary Moderation

Here's a funny joke: what's the difference between a liberation force and an occupation force?



I was thinking of turning off the civilian death count (see leftward) now that the bombing is all done and the database people seem to have gotten caught up on the underreported or unreported incidents. But American soldiers can't seem to stop doing what they do best: killing folks. Fourteen here, and then another two, all engaged in protest. Hesiod has an overview of the possible interpretations of these events, and how none of them look good for the United States. But I'm going to go further on the last possibility he lists. What if there were combatants in the crowd, trying to provoke an overreaction from the Americans (despite crowd-member claims to the contrary)? I'm trying to remember where else the strategy of generating irrational and violent reactions from Americans has worked in fermenting Anti-American feelings in the Arab world. Oh, yeah.



Perhaps the Americans are hoping to build a democracy in Iraq using the American model: start out with revolution against the imperial power. Playing the role of the King George in today's reinactment, Donald Rumsfeld.