Andrew Sullivan concludes from the latest poll of Iraqis. I would take issue with the"we." It is difficult to have a country officially run by occupation forces led in a high handed manner as Bremer did and expect people not to believe that the country is occupied."Most believe that the violence is a function of a collapse in respect for the Coalition forces and a function of external meddling (which gets it roughly right)", Sullivan goes on. In other words, recent events in Falujah, Karballa and even Bahgdad ( I saw on French T.V. Americans retreating when assaulted by a group of militants) led the Iraqis to conclude that they are on their own as the coalition forces cannot be trusted to protect those who support them.

That is not necessarily all bad. It may just force Iraqis to take responsibility for their fate. If so, that would be a welcome change in the Arab world where blaming the US and the Jews justifies doing nothing except whining. Note the manner in which prince Abdallah of Saudi Arabia blamed"the Zionists" for Al Qaeda travesties in his country. Abdallah and many of his fellow members of the Arab elite have too much contempt for their countrymen to believe that they are capable of acting on their own or that they will see through the absurdity of his attempt to shift responsibility from his penetrated security forces to the ever so handy"Jews."