I've spoken of it before: the Near East Culture of Death, a culture drawn the despair of bondage, bereft of natural expressions of freedom and taunted with the expediency of hatred. In the midst of everyone admitting the boundaries of their foresight and describing what has surprised them in nearly two weeks of Iraq's liberation, I must confess that I'm overwhelmed with the prospect of how deeply the culture of terror, suicide, and slaughter of the innocents has penetrated Iraq. I knew Saddam was an evil man, and secular as he and Iraq may be, he would never pass the opportunity to find common cause with Islamists; in one stroke he both deflects their reckless fury and gains a weapon against his enemies.

But even I took my theory of a sickened culture with a grain of salt. Consider it a humble recognition of my youth and amateur status.

I did not comprehend a Ba'athist party completely homologous to al Qaeda, means and ends indistinguishable; that only their uniforms and perverse, ancillary traditions diverge. One dogma. An authoritarian is an authoritarian. Tragically, I've been correctly understanding the source of the threat we face as ultimately singular.

Saddam must fall. After him, the Near East must be freed. By weapon, by peaceful revolt; the good soldier and the good statesman, Westerner or Easterner must prevail.