Hello: I reached my present position on Iraq after careful thought and
analysis of the present and past situations. I have opted for the solution
that is that all forces let the Iraqi people decide their future, whatever
the outcome. The powers that be on both sides, whether it's the
corporations and the oil cartels which have made the Iraqi carnage a means
of expeditiously collecting their profits which cannot be interrupted for
absolutely nothing in this world. On the other side greed and power, no
matter who falls, how many lives it costs, etc. are also the motivating
and inspiring force. Hordes of unemployed Sadam thugs as well as invading
foreign effectives and national Al Qaeda recruits are making sure the
death tolls are up to expectations on a daily basis. Who cares about the
innocent bystander, who cares who dies, let it all be done and attributed
to Jihad, while some deranged Ayatollah explains their deaths and tells
those who will listen to their hateful rhetoric that those who die as a
result of and for Jihad will be rewarded with bountiful riches and
assorted blessings in the afterlife. After all "bountiful rewards in a
second life or rebirth", were the main motivating force behind the
hijacking crews who nosedived their commandered aircraft into the twin
towers on 9/11 in New York, the Pentagon Bldg. in DC and a field in
Pennsylvania. According to the Ayatollahs those involved must be by now
alive again, living in the lap of luxury.

Now its late, too late and the time for thoughtful solutions and
considerations its over and the bottom line is that all this was so
preventable. The United For Peace and Democracy march of Feb. 15 2003, was
not some isolated march of radical, malcontents and extreme leftwingers,
it was a final call to reason, by the "molten lava", a march to prevent
the onrushing chaos, to prevent the horrible beheadings, the exploding car
bombs, the killing and maiming of thousands, we knew what was coming.  
The molten lava as you taught me to call it, its "molten lava" to describe
its spirit, but its actually a soothing balm that heals, which we totally
lack in this and other societies. Little people with a yearning to work in
peace, in a peaceful nation committed to education, jobs, social justice
and true democracy, not the corporate, selfish and insensitive haven our
nation has been allowed to become. Iraq has turned into the "Killing
Fields" of the new millenium and it clearly shows that monsters like Pol
Pot absolutely did not have exclusive domain or sole rights to the dreaded
title.  There are many others in the world just like him. And to see them,
one has only to look and there they are. The absolute shame of prisons and
detention centers at Abu Grahib and Guantanamo, has engulfed us, making
any attempts to rectify this evil by those well intentioned and good
people in our armed forces and elsewhere like Philipino-American U.S. Army
General Taguba, who discovered and denounced the tortures at Abu Grahib,
and other spots, impossible. The fact that General Ricardo Sanchez and
Secretary Rumsfeld, are still in office and have not seen fit to resign
speaks for itself. Also the fact that only a small group have been tried
or about to face court martial proceedings do not exceed the ranks of
sargeant and corporal, speaks volumes of these so called proceedings.
There is not one officer found in complicity, in other words, these folks
"just missed the boat" people were being tortured and degraded in flagrant
violation of the Geneva Convention and simply did not see what was going
on in front of their noses? I find that extremely hard to believe. So Iraq
in the course of a year and and half has turned into a dilemma, perhaps
not seen only by Bush and his blind followers. An administration which has
lost 99% of its cabinet is unprecedented and whoever denies this better
brush up on his or her history. This present and clear danger if I am not
wrong, sooner or later will turn into another shameful collapse, very much
like the ones we experienced in southeast Asia on 3/30/75 and 4/30/75.
Simply because when a people decide not to let an invader have his way,
right or wrong, their resolve becomes a powerful and terrible force to be
reckoned with like it took us more than 10 years to learn in Vietnam and
then other lessons that came along. We are hemorraging in Iraq and we'll
have to pull out, sooner or later. So I'd say that the time to start doing
it honorably, is now, through diplomacy and negotiations. We have the
people here and abroad and the resources to do it. Koffi Annan is one of
them and the other one could have been Tariq Azziz a skillful diplomat,
but we're about to judge him for "crimes committed against the Iraqi
people", whether these "crimes" are true or not which as an active and
longtime juror, and a good one mind you, no matter what I think about our
present court system, I have to be shown, beyond a reasonable doubt, that
Azziz really committed. Many times in court I had to swallow my pride and
accept the facts for what they really were, what common sense and
unshakeable reasonable doubt indicated. The alternative to us leaving Iraq
is to keep the status quo, keep sending "meat to the grinder", our youth
mind you and then later, at a chosen date, run for the evacuating choppers
at flat embassy building roofs and heliports and planes like we did in
Vietnam and Cambodia. And then it will be a double syndrome, I think it
already is, Vietnam's and Iraq, this one perhaps more terrible than the
prior one.

This in a nutshell is my present assessment in Iraq. Part of being
committed to democracy is, you must face reality, accept it and find a
honorable wayway out of a situation we shouldn't have been into in the
fist place.

The time for that is already here.

Take care,

"Malaparte"