December 13, 2003

"This is a great day in your history."--U.S. Ambassador Paul Bremer to Iraq

The day U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and the insurgency was expected to end.

You have before you the prospect of sovereign government in a few months.

With the arrest of Saddam Hussein, there is a new opportunity for members of the former regime, whether military or civilian, to end their bitter opposition.

Let them come forward now in a spirit of reconciliation and hope, lay down their arms and join you, their fellow citizens, in the task of building the new Iraq.

Now is the time for all Iraqis—Arabs and Kurds, Sunnis, Shias, Christians and Turkomen-- to build a prosperous, democratic Iraq at peace with itself and with its neighbors.

Is this still the way they think? Well, this is what Scott McClellan said on December 7, 2005:

MR. McCLELLAN: No. The President actually talked about the enemy. They fit into three different categories. And he talked abut the Saddam loyalists who want to return to the past, the dark past. We're seeing the brutalities of the past come out now in a trial that's being held to hold Saddam Hussein and his leaders accountable for the atrocities they committed.

And the atrocities we have committed? Well, we don't commit atrocities. They do.

And God is with us. Not with them.

Although Christ may be with the poor, the tortured, the persons without status. But Christ is no kind of god to have on your side in a war.

Plus çe la change, plus çe la meme chôse.