Syria Is Figuring It Out

These Syrians are good! They have started to catch on to what we are doing in Iraq. According to the BBC, Syria said our aim was

"to destroy Iraq's institutions, ministries and infrastructure that exist in all countries over the world and have nothing to do with the regime".

Let's see now. Iraq was a totalitarian dictatorship in which the party controlled everything. Schools, hospitals - every institution in the country was government related somehow. With most of the institutions we do have to destroy them, not physically, but intellectually, to establish new institutions built on ideals of freedom and fairness. The buildings and the people may be the same, but the foundations will be different.

As for the ministries, which would we want to keep? The Ministry of Disinformation? The Ministry of Non-Defense? Or perhaps the Ministry of Dictatorial Moustache Cutting (ever notice how every true dictator worth his salt has the same moustache?)? There is no reason for any existing ministry, in Iraq or abroad, to continue in its existing form.

And when it comes to infrastructure, we have gone out of our way to protect and save the existing Iraqi infrastructure. We didn't go blowing bridges, power plants, water plants, or any other infrastructure plants. We left them alone in a move very unusual in the history of war.

I really feel bad for the Syrian foreign minister. He has spent so much time with de Villepin that he doesn't realize that we have to change the institutions and ministries as part of the process of liberating the Iraqi people from the Ba'ath Party. Removing a cancer isn't real helpful if you don't get it all.