As much as the whole Iraq thing gets painted in a negative light, I think some of the most interesting comments on it can be found on Salaam Pax‘s blog which got a lot of press leading up to the war.

Surprising how it isn’t getting as much notice now?

Moderates who want Americans around long enough to establish a stable, democratic government tend to get drowned out by the more extreme views on either side of the spectrum.

In a perfect world, things would be easy enough as asking someone to join in the spirit of partnership but then the world is a far from perfect place.

So, I find myself in agreement - I don’t cotton to a lot of the posturing that lead up to the war but, the genie is out of the bottle now and foreign policy works best when it isn’t built around public opinion polls.

Anyway, all that doesn’t matter now. Saddam is gone, thanks to you. Was it worth it? Be assured it was. We all know that it got to a point where we would have never been rid of Saddam without foreign intervention; I just wish it would have been a bit better planned. Does this mean that I will be wearing a (I [heart] Bush) t-shirt? NO, because I don’t believe there is any altruism in politics and the way he sees the world scares me.

What I do really and sincerely hope for is that the day you and other soldiers and US civilians here don’t have to stay behind those high concrete walls isn’t too far away; and that you feel safe walking in the streets without those hard and heavy flak jackets, so that we can sit and talk about these things in a Karrada Street tea shop.

There are many challenges Iraqis have to face now, so please stick around a bit longer and try helping us get thru them. One of the more serious challenges is the fact that Iraq has become a sort of an open playground for many political and religious factions who are using Iraq as a fighting ground. So there you have it [Mr. Somewhere-in-the-north-of-Iraq], and by the way you never told me whether you had a blog or not.