Hmmm. Are the French beginning to acknowledge reality? Today’s editorial in Le Monde is called “L’Apres Guerre,” and contains the following sentences:
All smiles, defense secretary Rumsfeld predicted a brief war: “Six days? Six weeks?” Let’s accept that assessment. What then? What about the after-war? … To ask these questions is not to defend the indefensible status quo, the Saddam dictatorship.
The indefensible status quo. But wasn’t that exactly what the French supported only recently, covered by the fig-leaf that somehow more inspectors would make a blind bit of difference? I think Colin Powell was more effective than some gave him credit for.
THE PRICE OF SUPPORT: Bill Keller is a sensible fellow. But his piece this morning gives an insight into how otherwise sensible liberals can come to support this war: only by simultaneously deriding and condescending to the president who made it possible. Is peer pressure that great? I guess so.
The Dish 