Self-Evident

Marvin Olasky printed some interesting comments at Townhall today.

"The unstated assumption is that since people are endowed by the Creator with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, those who live under dictatorship inevitably yearn for freedom. That familiar concept from the Declaration of Independence is crucial to the administration's calculation of how Iraq's people and ordinary soldiers will respond if a war begins and Saddam's forces suffer initial defeat."

Obviously the adminsitration would love to see at the end cheering crowds welcoming American Soldiers into Baghdad. I hope that, assuming we go to war, that is what happens in the end. But, as Olasky points out, Saddam has been more careful to drape himself in Islamic trappings the last couple of years. He is courting the religious sentiment of his people, hoping to turn this into a holy war. And if he has succeeded, well, it seems unlikely we'll be welcomed with cheering crowds.

And the kicker is, its hard to know what's in the Iraqi people's hearts until the situation presents itself. They are obviously unable to express themselves now.