If I were a wagering man I might be tempted to bet on the outcome in this conflict between the "vision" of our Neocons and the thirst of the Iraqi people for freedom to govern them selves. I would bet that the vision of the Iraqi people would prevail in the end. Can I tell you what that vision will turn out to be? Well as one of our famous Philosophers once said, "Democracy is messy". There are innumerable ways this conflict could resolve itself but none of the likely ones fit the Neocon world-view. The Neocon level of hubris, is definable as "Patriotism" but unrelated to the real value of that word. Any level of hubris which leads people to believe that their nation is destined to lead the world into alignment with its own interests, is also definable as folly. The Iraqi people have a need for guidance, obviously, because there are a lot of men in Washington betting our treasury and their careers on it. Unfortunately Iraqi's feel that patriotism compels them to reject our guidance and insert their own into this control vacuum that we have created.

Saddam on any day had control of his people not only because he was brutal and murderous but also because his government received at least the minimum consensus support of enough of his people to survive. That he retained that consensus by use of fear, divisive policies and oppression matters little in regard to the simple fact that the Iraqi people did not rise up against him and destroy him by their selves. We chose to do that and announce to the whole world that Democracy would be the outcome of that process. We created a control vacuum; one that Democracy is supposed to fill of course. It is to be a democracy that will light the way for the Middle East and all of its' people. Unfortunately there are none of those people who believe in the USA as Santa Claus, they rather envision us as Satan with Claws deep in their throats today.

These twenty five million badly divided people who sit on top of the second largest deposits of oil in the world are afraid of us and contemptuous of our hypocrisies. Their fear will vanish as we become more familiar and less fearsome in our presence there. Either our tanks will cease to be our face in Iraq or we will become the hated occupiers of their nation. In the first case we will lose any semblance of the illusion of control that we have gained during the war. In that case Iraq's democracy will reflect Iraq's interests. In the second case we will suffer endless sniping and suicide bombings and all of the other nasty fates of modern oppressors everywhere. We will not fill the control vacuum unless we install a brute as competently oppressive as Saddam was at his best. The unsavory alternative is to become such a brute our selves.

The greatest beauty of Democracy is that the government eventually aligns itself with the interests of the people being governed, not those of some remote elite in Washington or elsewhere. That is the one really significant fact, which the Neocons in their ivory tower fantasy of power have missed. Either we must oppress these people further or they will follow their own selfish interests. We may have the power to liberate the world today. However, once we have accomplished that Sisyphean task we may find that it seldom has had the effect that we were anticipating. If our policies continue to follow the Neocons vision this will be our fate. In one grinding bloody war after another we will free the world from the oppressors, which like the poor are always with us. Then, we will be cast out along with our interests, and the people will learn to govern their selves. Or we will replace their oppressors with our oppression. That is the only real choice being offered by our President and his Neocons in Iraq and it will be the choice that must be made by us, the people of this great nation, as we move forward into history. God bless you all, and make your choices your own. And may God keep you safe and as honorable as you have always been in the bright and shining light of your own consciences.