I think people are wondering what I

think of events in Iraq. Not waiting breathlessly perhaps, but wondering where I stand.

I spent a lot of time yesterday catching up at USS Clueless. Stephen den Beste says this:

Our primary goal in Iraq is to establish a multi-ethnic tolerant liberal democracy, one which supports free expression. This is quite radical; there's never been anything like that before in an Arabic-speaking nation. And there's a natural tendency for those living in Iraq to wonder whether we're serious or hypocritical. After all, everyone believes in free speech when that speech agrees with them. Even under Saddam, anyone was free to praise him anytime they wanted.

The real test was whether we'd tolerate speech critical of us, and so far we have. Which is in the long run good. But it also meant we had to leave hands-off a lot of people in Iraq which we knew represented a terrible threat in the long run.
...
Now, however, we now have been given the opportunity to take the worst of them out without damaging broader Iraqi confidence in our commitment to freedom. We have proved that we will tolerate peaceful dissent, but we never promised we'd tolerate armed rebellion.

I'm not going to exerpt all the good stuff for you, as usual den Beste has much more analysis of our strategy and is generally positive about the chances of success.

This is a pretty good piece of analysis on the other side:

ANALYSIS-Arab Rulers' Worst Fears on Iraq Come True
Wed Apr 7, 2004 10:57 AM ET
By Samia Nakhoul
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Reuters)

Arab leaders had said loudly and repeatedly that a U.S. war against Saddam Hussein would unleash chaos in multi-ethnic Iraq and the region and open a Pandora's box of radicalism.

With U.S.-led forces now battling Shi'ite Muslims in several cities, they now feel their ominous prophecy has come true.

The leaders fear that clashes between Shi'ites loyal to firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and occupation forces could lead to civil war -- and spill over their borders.

"This is what we've been warning about. We told the Americans Saddam Hussein was only five percent of the problem. The other 95 percent just wasn't visible to them," a Gulf Arab diplomat said. "It's a very dangerous situation. It's painful."

Qatar, a staunch U.S. ally, said it feared civil war could break out in Iraq and that the country was becoming a "fertile ground for (various) terrorists."

"The developments in Iraq are alarming and we fear that we are facing a civil war in Iraq like Afghanistan and Lebanon," Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said.

"We cannot leave Iraq in this state because this disease will spread and I believe the situation is out of control."

LibertyBob (links all over everywhere) calls this site "A veritable melange of various stuff." I suppose I'm pretty much a linker, more than a thinker, but let's try to get down to it.

First a news update: Fierce Fighting Sweeps Iraqi Cities, Shi'ite Areas.
Wed Apr 7, 2004 11:24 AM ET.

Let me publish this because of the breaking story, and I'll get on with my thoughts when I have more time.