The daily dispatches out of Iraq have made it abundantly clear how challenging it is to convince Iraqis that they are more “liberated” than “occupied.” As the sabotage and sniper attacks persist and the ante is upped by the recent truck bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, the words of syndicated columnist Thomas Friedman continue to haunt.
He spoke at USF in February when the Iraqi war was still a Pentagon drumbeat and a UN minuet. He drew an analogy between post-war Iraq and Pottery Barn. “If you break it, you own it,” he said.