Emerging democracies.

• Author: Ivins, Molly
• Position: Small Favors - Iraq

A source of wonder, my boy Bush. "Our goal in Iraq," says he, "is victory." Representative John Murtha, showing a somewhat firmer grasp of reality, said, "The only people who want us in Iraq are Iran and Al Qaeda."

It's no longer a question of "What were they thinking?" but "What planet are they on?"

In March, Shiites and Sunnis were killing one another in the streets of Baghdad. The Iraqi parliament could barely convene. And the U.S. started a huge bombing campaign. To all this, Bush said, "By their response over the past two weeks, Iraqis have shown the world that they want a future of freedom and peace."

So much for the most famous photo-op of the war, Bush on an aircraft carrier out of San Diego saying, "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." Three years later, the planes roared out of Baghdad to bomb the shit out of some Sunni villages sixty miles north.

Thinking about the collateral damage in this case just makes you want to lay your head down and moan. There is no way to conduct a bombing campaign in a village. There are no targets except for little houses and the little houses next to them.

"Air war" and Iraq do not fit together. We no longer want to destroy the country's infrastructure; we're paying good money to try to rebuild it. Who are we punishing here?

This is not like Serbia, where we can aim for bridges and railroads. There's nothing to aim at but people.

And when we kill a lot more people, we're going to make a lot more insurgents. This is insane.

For months the media have been reporting that the Air Force is particularly uncomfortable with the idea of a bombing campaign because it doesn't want the Iraqis calling in and positioning the strikes. The Air Force seems to think Iraqis will take advantage of the situation to call in hits on their sectarian opponents. Amaze us, wouldn't it?

Meanwhile, we have the new Bush "strategery" plan, same as the old one. This theoretically commits us to support emerging democracies, which is grand when they emerge, but forcing them out is not working...