I can't help but root for the underdog...

[Johnny Horton]

What is lamentable is the waste... the egregious destruction that has been wrought by Saddam's insanity. His delusions... his inward belief that he is a great Mesopotamian emperor, destined to immortality... have resulted in grief, tragedy and death.

The palaces he's built, architectural works of beauty and magnificence, are now rubble. He'd spent billions in a narcissistic quest to establish the imagery of his greatness, when in reality he is nothing more than a thug... a John Gotti of the desert.

The naysayers can hoot and whine all they like about the illegality of the war, the perceived immorality of a powerful nation exerting its will on a weaker one, but the fact remains that once the war is over, the Iraqi people will have the first opportunity in almost three decades to pursue a happier existence.

With its fertile river valleys and abundant oil reserves, Iraq has the potential to support a superior middle class. Perhaps that, more than anything else, has fostered the ire of inferior countries like Saudi Arabia and (*snicker*) France. The Saudi Arabian brothers and cousins detest the prospect that a democracy might surface from the smoke and dust of a war that will threaten their own power. And the French simply cannot bear the prospect that another country will gan an opportunity to prosper.