I COULDN’T REMEMBER AT THE TIME (hence the term) but the “wag” mentioned in my GlennReynolds.com piece turns out to be Rand Simberg.

Well, he is a wag.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS:

We should celebrate our common ground as well as the gorgeous mosaic of our diversity. The next mass mobilization called by International ANSWER and the stop-the-war coalition is only a few days away. I already have my calendar ringed for the date. This time, I am really going to be there. It is not a time to keep silent. Let our voices be heard. All of this has been done in my name, and I feel like bearing witness.

Me too.

THE NEXT COMPLAINT: A prognostication.

NOT EVERYONE’S HAPPY — but some are catching on:

However, Tannous Basil, a 47-year-old cardiologist in Sidon, Lebanon, said Saddam’s regime was a “dictatorship and had to go.”

“I don’t like the idea of having the Americans here, but we asked for it,” he said. “Why don’t we see the Americans going to Finland, for example? They come here because our area is filled with dictatorships like Saddam’s.”

Tarek al-Absi, a Yemeni university professor, was hopeful Saddam’s end presaged more democracy in the region.

“This is a message for the Arab regimes, and could be the beginning of transformation in the Arab region,” al-Absi said. “Without the honest help of the Western nations, the reforms will not take place in these countries.”

These voices aren’t in the majority yet — but they’re not in the wilderness anymore, either.

UPDATE: Amir Taheri writes in The Times that we shouldn’t listen to the Arab elites:

The headlines screamed “Americans slaughter civilians” and “Thousands of Iraqis prepare for suicide missions”. None of that happened. The Iraqis proved to be wiser than some of their Arab brethren had assumed. . . .

The Iraqis did not wish to suffer the fate of the Palestinians, that is to say to die in large numbers for decades so that other Arabs, safe in their homes, would feel good about themselves. The Iraqis know that had the Palestinians not listened to their Arab brethren, they would have had a state in 1947, as decided by the United Nations Security Council. The Iraqis know that each time the Palestinians became heroic to please other Arabs they lost even more.

These days the Arab media are full of articles about how the Arabs feel humiliated by what has happened in Iraq, how they are frustrated, how they hate America for having liberated the people of Iraq from their oppressor, and how they hope that the Europeans, presumably led by Jacques Chirac, will ride to the rescue to preserve a little bit of Saddam’s legacy with the help of the United Nations.

Thank God, the peoples of Iraq, not deceived by Arab hyperbole, are ignoring such nonsense.

Are the “long-distance heroes” humiliated? If they are, so what? They should jump in a river. Today, Iraq is free and, despite its legitimate concerns about the future, cautiously happy.

Read the whole thing.

HEH:

Sen. John McCain said on FoxNews that if the French and Germans care about Iraq’s future, he suggests they forgive Iraq’s debts to them — especially since most of the debt was run up buying weapons.

I think we should make this argument repeatedly.

AUSTIN BAY has a new column up about Iraqi reconstruction.

I’ll have something on this subject up over at GlennReynolds.com shortly, too.

WELL, I FIND NOTHING TO ARGUE WITH in this post.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES: John Cole has a photo essay that’s worth your time.

ALGERIA MISSING TOURISTS UPDATE: My brother, who as I mentioned has actually driven across the Sahara, sends this link to a donations page for the search fund. He also sends this link and this one to discussion forums on the subject, and adds:

If you scroll down from the “donation” button there is not only news on the search for the missing folks, but also a link to pictures of the people and their vehicles. By and large they were well outfited and fairly experienced… not the sort to go missing in such numbers.

Emmanuelle Richard, meanwhile, sends this link to a Swiss story (in French, Google translation here). She also sends a bad link to another story, but the gist is that “a guide interviewed in the report said he was attacked by armed men and was spared after he brandished his Koran.”

Hmm. Stay tuned on this one, as I’m deeply suspicious about what’s going on in southern Algeria.

TIM BLAIR:

I SHOULDN’T be so happy. After all, I’m a right-wing deathbeast, and the end (or near end) of a war should upset me, because we conservatives lust for war all the time. Except when we have to fight it ourselves, of course. Being chickenhawks and all.

And the toppling of a fascist dictator should have me all weepy and nostalgic for Hitler. Because I’m a fascist, according to much of the mail I receive.

Those Iraqis dancing in the streets? That should really piss me off, because I want to oppress them and steal their oil. Why are they even able to dance? I was promised 500,000 murders, yet thus far only 1,000 or so innocents have died.

So why am I so damn happy? I really can’t explain.

I’d go and ask some oppression-hating anti-fascist peace activists about it, but for some reason they’re all incredibly depressed.

Yeah, go figure.

ARAB OPINION LEADERS ARE GOING THROUGH A ROUGH PATCH as images of the U.S. victory — and Iraqi hatred for Saddam Hussein, whom they had anointed an Arab hero earlier — are broadcast across the Arab world.

Will they learn the obvious lessons this time?

GREGG EASTERBROOK WRITES:

The new type of “bunker buster” bombs used in the strike are awful if you’re on the aim point, but also designed for use in urban environments: They are engineered to hammer the exact target but have little nearby effect. Look at those images of the rubble pit on CNN. Barely anything is left–we may never know who was in there–yet all nearby houses remain standing. That’s after 8,000 pounds of high explosives just went off. I wonder if French TV will report that we’ve gone out of our way to design a bomb that doesn’t kill the wrong person.

I don’t.

BASRA HAS A NEW MAYOR. He’s Iraqi. As Group Captain Mandrake says, Yes, we really meant it.

JEFF JARVIS is on a roll. Just go read.

DANIEL DREZNER WRITES ON ANTI-AMERICANISM in The New Republic. It’s an excellent piece about why anti-Americanism works better for election sloganeering than for governing, but what’s really cool is that he’s got links to sources over at his blog, and TNR links to them.

HEH:

from Prof. Robert P. George of Princeton: “‘”When tyrants tremble, sick with fear, and hear their death knell ringing; When friends rejoice both far and near, How can I keep from singing?’–19th century Quaker hymn revived by Pete Seeger in the 1960s (Haven’t heard Pete or other Leftists singing it lately. Wonder why?)”

Why, indeed?

UPDATE: Reader Mark Throneberry emails:

Enya recorded it not too long ago – and it’s a *marvelous* rendition!

It’s on her Shepherd Moons CD – as a matter of fact, it’s so good: just listen to the whole thing!

Listen to the whole thing, eh?

NEWS AND VIDEO from Ba’ath Party torture chambers, via Virginia Postrel.

JOE BIDEN RAVE ACT UPDATE: There’s information over at TalkLeft.

BRIAN MICKLETHWAIT WRITES:

Reporters have been struck by how few busted Iraqi tanks have contained any dead Iraqis, and I have already joined the small chorus asking about where the dead Iraqi bodies are to be seen in our newspapers and on our screens, because despite everything there have to have been some.

But things like these concrete bombs suggest another explanation for the general absence of dead Iraqi soldiers. It wasn’t just that the Iraqis were uniquely unwilling to fight for the uniquely nasty Saddamite regime. There was also the fact that, for the first time in the history of conventional warfare, “melting away” actually worked as a way to stay alive. Faced with an enemy willing and unprecedentedly able to smash all your big weapons, but willing to leave you alone if you just got the hell out of there, which the Iraqis were facing if I understand Coalition tactics correctly, they actually could run away.

If this is correct, then this is just one more reason among hundreds to admire all the thought that has gone into the Coalition attack and its tactics, throughout the last few weeks but also throughout the previous year and more. I hope that, when the story emerges, we will discover that the Coalition wasn’t just trying to avoid killing Iraqi civilians, but that they were also trying to avoid killing Iraqi soldiers more than was absolutely necessary to protect their own activities. Certainly the public pronouncements of Rumsfeld and co. suggest this. “Go home, abandon your weapons”, etc. Well, that’s what seems to have happened.

Interesting, and I hope the same thing. Of course, an absence of dead Iraqis would disappoint the bloody-shirt element of the peace movement, if not the Pentagon. But Marc Herold can probably supply dead bodies as needed, in any quantity requested. . . .

A.N.S.W.E.R. is planning a stop-the-war rally for Washington on Saturday.

They may get their wish, an end to the war. I wonder if they’ll be pleased?

UPDATE: Reader Rani Shea emails:

The networks are focusing, rightly, on the image of the statue falling. But when the news just shows live coverage without comment, I saw something remarkable. The scene is like a street party, with men and women and kids and soldiers milling about. In one shot, Iraqis are posing with American soldiers for photographs. One man, as his friend takes the picture, kisses the burly and armed American sitting next to him.

What a beautiful and unexpected moment. For the world, and probably for that soldier who is wondering how many more smooches he’s going to get from guys he doesn’t know.

Heh. I’ll let Andrew Sullivan weigh in on this one. . . .

BAGHDAD DOESN’T FALL: “It crumbles.”

The footage of Iraqis going after statues and pictures of Saddam is better than blogging at the moment. The TV guys are earning their keep. And it’s going out across the Arab world on Arab TV services, I understand.

UPDATE: Just saw a statue of Saddam go down, while Iraqis cheered and threw things. Best of all, it was via Abu Dhabi TV.

A lot of Arab rulers are nervous now.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Peter Jennings just slammed the BBC politely, noting that a BBC reporter described the liberation scene that Jennings was narrating as “utter anarchy.” It was, he said, an example of bringing a different perspective to the same events. Heh.

Meanwhile a British reader remarks that the BBC was slow even to cover the liberation events, and is now in an obvious snit, making a big deal about the looting even though it seems confined to Saddam’s palaces and the like. My favorite comment:

If the Iraqis want to help themselves to a bit of Saddam regime loot, or string up a few collabos, they’re welcome to it, so far as I’m concerned. I’ve never heard Brit broadcasters so aerated about economic redistribution before.

Heh. I think the BBC — along with a lot of other people — has shot itself in the foot over this one.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Scott Wrightson has some nice thoughts.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Jim Hogue writes about the BBC’s reputation: “It crumbles.” He adds:

Quick note, while the statue was being pulled down in Baghdad my wife called and told me that the BBC was deeply engaged in a report on….an earthquake somewhere. Impartial indeed.

I suppose it depends on which BBC service you’re watching, as another reader sent me notes on a BBC report from the scene, but still. . .

Meanwhile Jim Treacher has already spotted the next protest sign.

And here’s a far more detailed critique of the BBC’s coverage, supporting the “it crumbles” thesis. And reader Dave Weigel emails about the looting:

Haven’t BBC reporters taken any sociology courses? What’s happening in Baghdad isn’t looting. It’s a popular uprising. Hey, that’s how one of my professors at Northwestern referred to the L.A. riots.

You mean you can have a “popular uprising” against a government that’s not Western, or at least Western-backed? Who knew?

Meanwhile reader Rick Richman emails: “Amazing turn of events: last year the guy got 100% of the vote!”

LAST UPDATE TO THIS POST: My brother emails: “Funny how it’s the finance ministry building in Baghdad that is on fire… those do seem to be particularly flammable when a regime is on the way out.” Yeah.

JAMES LILEKS WRITES:

Allied troops liberated a children’s jail today.

I wish that sentence made no sense.

Someone had to decide there would be children’s jails. Who? . . .

The end result of a fascist regime is always this: a man who seeks advancement by proposing a children’s jail; a smarter man who sees the political advantage of building one; the men who lock the doors and make the gruel with dead empty hearts, and the man who worries what will happen to him if the jail is found wanting.

The children, of course, don’t matter at all. In fact they matter least of all, and after a while their jailers come to hate them for what they make the jailers do.

A daisy chain of snakes biting their tales. Look up at the portrait hanging on the wall. Ask yourself what he wants. Bite harder.

Read it all.

THE WAR IS NOW OFFICIALLY A SUCCESS: “Hurt and Disillusioned, Some Arab Fighters Go Home “

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Salaam went to Iraq to do battle with Americans and die a martyr. He returned home with shrapnel wounds and tales of fighting U.S. military might with a rifle.

From a Baghdad hotel he moved to a training camp where volunteers practiced shooting and trench warfare. Then Salaam, 24 years old and unemployed, was sent to war.

“I was sleeping behind mounds of sand and firing from Kalashnikovs on helicopters. It was craziness,” he said.

“We stayed at the front five days and we didn’t eat anything. I saw two dead bodies shot in the head.”

Thousands of volunteers from across the Arab world are thought to be in Iraq to fight advancing U.S. and British forces. On Wednesday, jubilant Iraqis welcomed U.S. troops in Baghdad.

Salaam, a Lebanese Shi’ite Muslim, said he was unprepared for the hostility of some Iraqis to volunteers like himself.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to have fully appreciated the situation. But here’s someone who does:

Hundreds of Muslim fighters, many of them non-Iraqis, were putting up a stronger fight for Baghdad than Iraq’s Republican Guard or the regular army, a top United States military officer said yesterday.

“They stand, they fight, sometimes they run when we engage them,” Brigadier-General John Kelly said.

“But often they run into our machine guns and we shoot them down like the morons they are.”

Think of it as evolution in action.

THE BBC / DE GENOVA CONNECTION: My TechCentralStation column is up.

DICK CHENEY I-TOLD-YOU-SO UPDATE:

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Witnessing Saddam Hussein’s power stripped away, hundreds of Iraqis rushed to take everything else Wednesday: They used pickup trucks and wheelbarrows to haul off everything from refrigerators to flower pots from government ministries, police stations and state companies.

Emboldened by the sight of U.S. troops taking control of the capital, they not only dared to loot but also to celebrate Saddam’s fall, to vandalize his image and to call him a criminal — offenses that just days or weeks ago could have brought arrest, imprisonment, torture, even death at the hands of the secret police.

They also danced in the streets, waving rifles, palm fronds and flags, pumping their arms in the air and flashing the V-for-victory sign. . . .

On a Baghdad street, a white-haired man held up a poster of Saddam and beat it with his shoe. A younger man spat on the portrait, and several others launched kicks at the face of the Iraqi president.

“Come see, this is freedom. This is the criminal, this is the infidel,” he said. “This is the destiny of every traitor. He killed millions of us.”

Some people think the looting is bad, but I think that a certain amount is good. It reinforces in people’s minds that Saddam is gone, and that he was unpopular. Meanwhile, here’s what the antiwar crowd was defending:

“They did unthinkable things — electrocution, immersion in a bath of chemicals and ripping off people’s finger and toenails.”

The jail basement was a warren of cells, chambers and cages where the ground was strewn with an insect-eaten gas mask and bottles, according to Associated Press Television News footage. . . .

Outside the jail, a man showed APTN his mangled ears.

Hamed took British reporters into a yard behind the jail into a set of white boxy cells, surrounded by red wire mesh with a low, wire roof.

He said some of the cells, which had red doors with large bolts, were used to hold women and children. He also said hundreds of men were kept in a single cell about the size of a living room, which had one rusted grate window.

Between the men’s and women’s cells was a long mesh cage. Hamed said here, jailers pressed prisoners against the mesh and squeezed hot irons against their backs or threw scalding water on them in front of other inmates.

Fortunately for the Iraqi people, all those folks who just a few weeks ago were demonstrating in “solidarity” with them were quite properly ignored. And within minutes, they’ll have changed the subject to something else and will be acting as if they were never colossally, utterly, unredeemably wrong about this.

But they were, and a lot of people will remember.

UPDATE: Actually, I like this take on the looting:

(2003-04-09) — The looting in Baghdad stopped suddenly today as Iraq’s largest organized crime family disappeared from the city.

Thousands of Baghdad residents entered government buildings in an attempt to retrieve some small portion of what had been stolen from them for the past 24 years.

Heh.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Reuters is reporting “Smiles and Flowers for U.S. Marines in Baghdad:”

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Hundreds of jubilant Iraqis mobbed a convoy of U.S. Marines on Wednesday, cheering, dancing and waving as American troops swept toward central Baghdad through slums and leafy suburbs from the east.

Crowds threw flowers at the Marines as they drove past the Martyrs’ Monument, just three km (two miles) east of the central Jumhuriya Bridge over the Tigris river.

Young and middle-aged men, many wearing soccer shirts of leading Western clubs like Manchester United, shouted “Hello, hello” as Marines advanced through the rundown sprawl of Saddam City and then more prosperous suburbs with villas and trim lawns.

“No more Saddam Hussein,” chanted one group, waving to troops as they passed. “We love you, we love you.”

Yeah, the thrill will pass, and soon they’ll be bitching about this and that, just like everyone else does. But I think that Cheney has been sufficiently vindicated. And some other people have been proven colossally, utterly, unredeemably wrong. Did I mention that?