Welcome to the new Iraq.

Same as the old Iraq. If we’re actually focused on bettering Iraq, we need to do all we can to stop them from slipping back into the evil habits of Saddam.

I’m rooting for a real democracy in Iraq

That is fantastic Justin. I was under the impression that you wanted to get out of Iraq sometime in the next 20 years. Hell, I thought that you were one of those so splenetic on very feasibility of that very mission.

Well, now that you’ve joined the delusional neocons, I’m with you — we should stick around, institutionalize Miranda and put video cameras in all the interrogation rooms.

I’m for finding a firm-handed potentate that can establish security without resorting to genocide. But hell, since you’re in favor of sticking it out to the bitter end, someone needs to get to work organizing the Baghdad Gay Pride Parade.

So since you seem to embrace the tactics of dictators, who or what are you rooting for?

If there’s not enough urgency in this war to require real, broad-based sacrifice from the American people, it’s pretty much impossible to argue that there’s enough to warrant the use of torture.

Such events demonstrate why it is that bringing democracy to Iraq was probably always a pie-in-the-sky aspiration. Before you can instill the structure, you have to prepare the soil and lay the foundation. People who live in a culture where leaders have routinely used violence to ensure efficient responses haven’t yet had the foundation prepared.

To put it another way: yeah, it is sickening.