 Mr Douglass: A final reply to your final post.  :: I do not doubt the existence of the devastation, gore and carnage that Iraqis experienced. It is real and needs to be put in to both current and historical context.  :: Coalition planners went to great lengths to spare Iraqi infrastructure during the invasion precisely because they intended to immediately support the development of a new Iraq from the wreckage of Saddam’s tyranny.   :: While war involves the ‘management of violence’ with destructive consequences, the assault on Saddam’s forces was the most precise in the history of warfare.  Today, the rules of engagement that vulnerably restrict the tactics of coalition soldiers are intended to protect the lives of innocents. Giving many threatening persons the benefit of the doubt. Those that violate are prosecuted.  :: Insurgent tactics couldn’t be more reverse: the bombing of marketplaces, killing of faithful in mosques and assaulting law enforcement recruits in line for training. Sabotage of infrastructure by Sunni insurgents and al-Qaeda operatives has stymied the pace of reconstruction – not wanton damage by coalition forces.  :: Saddam’s wars cost well over half-million lives in the Middle East and his internal assaults on non-Sunnis resulted in hundreds of thousands more dead. Many like yourself who yearn for Saddam underestimate the degree to which he destroyed Iraqi society.   :: Today the percentage of Iraqi youth enrolled in school greatly exceeds enrollment during Saddam’s government and Iraqi oil revenues are now funding projects of public benefit instead of building Saddam’s palaces and fattening his arsenal.  :: Do you detest the new Iraq so much that the only alternative futures you prefer are either Iraq under the boot of dictatorship or Iraq terrorized by Sunni overlords and al-Qaeda militants?  :: While the main stream media and you cultivate the perception of chaos across Iraq today, the growing prosperity of Iraqis is ignored. The inflation rate of 70% in 2002 has fallen to 25.4% in 2006. The Iraqi unemployment rate of 60% in 2002 has been reduced to 30% in 2006. Iraq’s economic output in 2004 was $90 billion, more than double the output of Saddam's last year in power. That type of performance doesn’t happen in a quagmire.  :: Among Iraqis, an ABC poll from December found broad optimism. They must not be watching American television news channels.  :: It seems that you share the opinion that the people in the Islamic world are unfit to chose their own leaders. That they require dictators to keep them in line. The soft bigotry of low expectations.   :: Democracy wasn’t imposed on Iraq. Elected Iraqi delegates drafted a constitution that was approved by a popular vote. While some Iraqis may wax nostalgic about life under the Ba’ath party, the electorate has clearly supported the new republic.   :: This is a unprecedented achievement in a region where most suffer under tyrants and terrorists. Kavanagh 28 June 2006 11:40 (EST)  