---

BLOODTHIRSTY IN IRAQ
The scene after the four Americans were killed in Iraq yesterday, with the mutilated corpses hung from the bridge and the other unspeakable acts, such as dragging one corpse behind a car, must have opened up a lot of eyes. It will also bring out more cries from certain sectors for us to abandon the job we have been doing so well over there, because some will read it as "all Iraqis hate us".

They don't. Look for Jeff Jacoby's April lst story for a real eye-opener. The truth is that most Iraqis are happy with the way we deposed Saddam, they trust the U.S. Yet, there are many Iraqis who are illiterate and they live by emotion, not reason. That's the type of crowd you saw on TV after the killing of the 4 Americans. The illiterates arew really too dumb, many of them, to understand what is going on, so they take their hatred out on Americans and British people. If we pull out now, before the job is finished, some other dictator will take over and it will be another potential Hussein in power.

If even 1% of the population thinks like that, that's 200,000 enemies in the country. Be logical. We cannot win them all over. We cannot leave until the government is strong enough to withstand assault from people like that. There are those who would take Iraq back to the Stone Age if they had their way. We cannot bail out and betray those 600 who have already given their lives for one purpose, to leave Iraq a better place when they come home again. It was a gruesome sight, but illiterate mobs behave that way and those Americans who died were just as brave as any soldier simply be being there.