A new, top-secret CIA report from Iraq warns that growing numbers of Iraqis are concluding the U.S.-led coalition can be defeated and are supporting the insurgents.Turning that around doesn't change the meaning but does make clear a serious implication: Growing numbers of Iraqis are supporting the insurgents because they have concluded the US-led occupation can be defeated.
Before the war, one of the many lies we were told was that our troops would be greeted as "liberators;" we as much as got promised that the streets would be paved with rose petals as the tanks rumbled through Baghdad. The White House's recent PR push, spinning tales of "warm welcomes" and "smiling faces," pursued the same line, claiming that everything was going great in Iraq (except for "remnants" of the old regime) and it was only that mean old liberal media that was keeping everyone from knowing it. (No, I have no links to those exact quotes. BFD.)
Yet now comes a wholly different tale borne by the CIA, one that tells not of endorsement but of acquiescence, not of celebration but of resignation, one of a people undoubtedly glad to be rid of Saddam Hussein but equally undoubtedly deeply resentful of being occupied. A people, that is, that have so far (for the most part) accepted their condition - but given a reason to believe that the occupiers can be ousted, will move toward active opposition.
Many of us who opposed the war may have been wrong about the difficulty of the original conquest, but we were spot on about the pain - to us and to Iraqis - of what would follow.
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