WHY DO THEY HATE US???

Ok, I took most of the weekend off, but I'm back, and output should be cruising through thursday afternoon, though I can't make any guarantees about the weekend.

Remember how shortly after 9/11, one of the en vogue questions at the time was "why do they hate us?", with "they" being Al Qaeda and such. Well if we pose that that question again, this time aimed at the people of Iraq, we find a rather concise answer: because we blew up their country, and we're standing idly by as their culture, establishments and history are destroyed by looters and riots.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At first they cheered, smiled, offered hearty thumbs-ups to the U.S. soldiers newly in their midst. But across Iraq's lawless capital, that sentiment is evaporating as quickly as Saddam Hussein's government melted away.

Baghdad was bursting with anti-American feeling Saturday as residents saw their city being stripped by its own citizens while U.S. forces stood by, rarely intervening and in some cases even motioning treasure-laden men through checkpoints.

Some still agreed with the United States' assessment of itself as a liberator. In the middle-class Zayuna neighborhood, friendly people offered American Marines baths, bread and buoyant greetings — and asked for both autographs and help against looters.

But for other Iraqis, in dozens of interviews conducted across Baghdad, the assessment was drastically different: America as conqueror.

"The coalition forces are responsible. Where is the law?" said Safa Hussein Qasim, 44, a jeweler. "This is the promise of the United States to Iraq? This is democracy in Baghdad?"

To walk the streets Saturday was to wade through a crazy-quilt blend of disarray and sadness, rage and jubilation and self-hatred. Though available booty was running low, looting continued apace, as did citizen resistance to it. One man carried a purloined tuba up the street. Baghdadis fretted and argued: What would become of their country?

"Saddam Hussein's greatest crime is that he brought the American army to Iraq," said Gailan Ramiz, 62, helping a mob that was trying to tear down yet another Saddam statue at Shorji market, Baghdad's biggest.

It is stories like Hassan Shrawa's that are making them turn their backs on the uniformed Americans who swept in days ago.

Shrawa, 30, an engineer from Baghdad's Saddam City section, said he and his neighbors captured a Syrian mercenary and turned him over to U.S. troops Friday. As Shrawa tells it, the commander flatly refused to take custody of the man.

"What happens in the future?" Shrawa mused.

U.S. forces say they are doing the best they can under chaotic conditions — chaos, many Iraqis point out, that the United States itself created. Few praised Saddam. But at least, they said, he offered stability.

Baghdad lacks that right now. Water, electricity and gasoline are pipe dreams, and food is becoming almost as scarce.

Holy crap, it took less than a week, and we already have the "at least he offered stability" nostalgia!?!? This is like "democratic" Russia, only what took twenty years there took a week in Iraq, all thanks to us! In Russia, you had Yeltsin and now Putin, with a democracy that isn't quite democratic, and a free market that really isn't that free (in fact that's being very charitable, the more apt term would be bribeocracy or kleptocracy). Talk to some old hands there, and interestingly, you'll hear nostalgia for the days of Brezhnev. And though it's close, I'd say that Saddam was (is?) probably a bit worse than ol' Leonid was.

The looting continues as we speak. Hospitals are being looted. Rummy tried to talk such things off as the "untidy" consequences of newfound freedom. And the most insulting paradigm of America's motivations in Iraq? From the Washington Post:

Some Iraqis, however, question the allocation of U.S. forces around the capital. They note a whole company of Marines, along with at least a half-dozen amphibious assault vehicles, has been assigned to guard the Oil Ministry, while many other ministries -- including trade, information, planning, health and education -- remain unprotected.

"Why just the oil ministry?" Jaf asked. "Is it because they just want our oil?"

Sigh.