Dragonlich

I did catch it the first time, and wasn't even aiming all my guns at you... There are other people in this thread who do not have your issues, and they sort of mess up the bilateral discussion. But that was to be expected.

I am antagonistic against *some* Iraqis... look at it this way: the US has come over to remove their oppressor, and to bring democracy and human rights. What do they get in return? Shi'ites protesting against the US, even though without them, they wouldn't have been able to go on their holy pilgrimage where they protested. Gangs looting everything they can get their hands on, and Iraqis protesting the US for not stopping them. People protesting the US for not providing clean water, electricity, and many other essential goods, even though they went without those things for *two years* after the last gulf war. People storming a US compound, demanding they leave, resulting in a bloodbath after someone started shooting. And now, Iraqi people looting dangerous things from a nuclear compound, and everyone blaming the US for not stopping them...

Many Iraqis can only seem to whine and complain, while waiting for the US to solve all their problems (and leaving ASAP, of course). It's understandable because of their background (living under a dictatorship like Saddam's does that to you), but it has to change. *They* have to take responsibility for their own country, if they are ever to become a successful democratic country. If they do not want to do that, the Shi'ite cleric was right: Democracy isn't the best system for them, but a fundy Islamic state (read: dictatorship) is. The more these people are shielded, the more the US does, the worse it'll be in the long run. If the Iraqis were to cooperate to rebuild their own country, they will have done it *together*, by themselves, which will give them a sense of pride and unity, essential for a free society.