Christopher Dickey on why the war in Iraq has just begun:

So no wonder Washington wants to believe Saddam and his late sons are the inspiration for those guerrilla attacks that cost the lives of another three Americans just today. No wonder Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz clings to the idea that paid assassins are at the heart of resistance to the benevolent American presence. And we should all hope that’s the case, because if it is, then the end of Saddam, which may come soon, could really mean an end to the war.

But Adnan Abu Odeh, a former advisor to Jordan’s King Hussein and one of the region’s real wise men, offers another scenario. He suggests the Iraqi people see themselves struggling against two enemies now: Saddam on the one hand, the American occupiers on the other. “Ironically, if Saddam is killed as well as his two sons,” says Abu Odeh, “that will accelerate the process of seeing the Americans as the real enemy.”

The dynasty is over. The dying is not.

Good piece. Read the whole thing.


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