No, not you Tom, Iraqis.

I recently read "The Fall of Baghdad" by Jon Lee Anderson, a firsthand account of the periods before, during, and after the invasion. One thing that struck me early in the narrative, as Anderson recounts the relationships he built up before the invasion with people ranging from taxi drivers to Saddam's personal physician, was the classic split personality of people who've lived their lives in a totalitarian state. Iraqis in one breath would confess to loathing Saddam, while expressing dread at the upcoming American invasion. Iraqis would caper before the cameras waving guns and shouting anti-American slogans, then walk over to an American bystander and strike up a friendly, often enthusiastic, conversation. Saddam's physician related confidences about his patient, expressed his fear and loathing and also explained how he accommodated...and then ran to Saddam when summoned.

I'm skeptical of understanding what Iraqis are thinking taking statements in isolation and sorting them into pro or con bins. What we really need is an "Iraqi student" to talk to, to question, and to tease out the ambivalency that I suspect still lurks in the hearts of most Iraqis. Seems reasonable that the mental conditioning they developed under Saddam, the ability to compartmentalize and hold contradictory ideas, is still there, and now it's been remapped on to their American occupiers. Remember that they have experience relating only to one authority figure, Saddam Hussein. We might understand them better by figuring out how their mode of relating to Saddam is being redirected to relating to us. To put it bluntly, it might be wise to distrust any single statement by an Iraqi. We need a conversation to get the full picture in all its tangled glory.