Count me a "Blair Democrat"

Il più autorevole opinionista liberal, Thomas Friedman (New York Times), invita di nuovo, nel pantano iracheno, a saper distinguere tra le parti in lotta e concentrarsi sulla posta in gioco.

«There is much to dislike about this war in Iraq, but there is no denying the stakes. And that picture really framed them: this is a war between some people in the heart of the Arab-Muslim world who - for the first time ever in their region - are trying to organize an election to choose their own leaders and write their own constitution versus all the forces arrayed against them... As the Johns Hopkins foreign policy expert Michael Mandelbaum so rightly pointed out to me, "These so-called insurgents in Iraq are the real fascists, the real colonialists, the real imperialists of our age".

However this war started, however badly it has been managed, however much you wish we were not there, do not kid yourself that this is not what it is about: people who want to hold a free and fair election to determine their own future, opposed by a virulent nihilistic minority that wants to prevent that».

La cosa terribile è che nonostante il nobile sacrificio di tanti soldati, questa guerra è ancora possibile perderla. Per colpa degli errori commessi da Rumsfeld e dall'amministrazione Bush, degli altri Paesi arabi, e di alcuni europei che «having been made stupid by their own weakness, would rather see America fail in Iraq than lift a finger for free and fair elections there».

Chi meglio ha presente la posta in gioco in questa guerra è invece il primo ministro britannico Tony Blair:

«Whatever people's feelings or beliefs about the removal of Saddam Hussein and the wisdom of that, there surely is only one side to be on in what is now very clearly a battle between democracy and terror. On the one side you have people who desperately want to make the democratic process work, and want to have the same type of democratic freedoms other parts of the world enjoy, and on the other side people who are killing and intimidating and trying to destroy a better future for Iraq».

Parole pronunciate il 21 dicembre a Baghdad. Sul Weekly Standard alcuni estratti del discorso di Blair, qui la trascrizione della conferenza stampa.

Reuel Marc Gerecht fa il punto della situazione sui vari fronti e opzioni che costituiscono «The Struggle for the Middle East». Una lotta che riguardo i suoi protagonisti politici e militari induce qualcuno sul Washington Times a parlare di «New Great Generation», paragonabile alla great generation della WWII.