New York Daily News - Ideas & Opinions - Charles Krauthammer: Critics are wrong, Iraq is moving forward

I used to think I was a hippy. I wore peace signs sewed into my clothes and kept my hair as long as possible. Contrary to the typical right-wing hippy stereotype, I was neither greasy nor dirty. I was plenty high though. I suppose, had I been older, I would have been out there protesting the Viet Nam war.

I wasn't really a hippy. I grew up in the '70's, long after the summer of love. Viet Nam was over by the time I was 14. But we tried to be hippies anyway.

As I grew up, I discovered that I liked material things far too much to be a real hippy. I liked stereos and big TV's - cars, computers and cell phones. Its hard to earn money and still be a hippy.

So I made the natural progression to left wing liberal. Or, so I thought. I had some decidedly right wing beliefs - the death penalty and capitalism mostly. I half-heartedly protested the first Gulf War.. I went to a demonstration but all I did was observe. Some of the people seemed kind of silly.

I didn't protest Operation Iraqi Freedom at all. In fact, I found myself getting pissed off at the people I saw demonstrating. I couldn't understand why they hated America so much.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that now, in my mid-forties, I find myself split in half by the great divide that is politics in the 0's... (Is that how to say it? you have the ''70's, the '80's, the '90's and now the '0's? Looks funny...)

There are apparently 2 Iraqs. In one Iraq, people are dying by the truckload. Bombs are going off everywhere you look, body parts flying all over. Its Viet Nam all over again folks. Our boys are coming home in bags and its all for oil.. or for GWB's lies.. (what exactly he has to gain by lying is rarely explained...) or for American Imperialism. We need to pull our boys home and let those poor people be! No wonder the whole world despises us!

This is the Iraq that can be seen on TV and other major media outlets. Despite the apparent horror displayed by the anti-war crowd, they also seem delighted by the whole thing. There is a certain good feeling to be had by saying, "I told you so!" Also, they are gratified, apparently, by GWB being made to look bad. He's a war criminal after all.. He's ruining our relationship with the rest of the world. He MUST fail! They also seem to feel that we'd better stop before we make them really mad and they hurt us again.

Then there is Iraq #2.

In this Iraq, most of the people, the normal Iraqis are grateful that we toppled Saddam. They want us to stay and help them rebuild their country and protect them from the bad guys as they recover. Our guys are still dying but moral is up and most feel that it is the price of freedom that must be paid. We are taking out terrorist scum by the bus load. They're coming in from all over to Iraq for a chance to blow up Americans. And sometimes they're sussesful but in the mean time, we're getting lots of them and better to fight them there than on the streets of New York. Iraq has become the Roach Motel for terrorists. GWB is a hero, a visionary, a brave man who is doing the right thing for the right reasons. We're winning the fight against terrorism and though it will be a long fight and our guys will continue to be killed, we are right in taking the fight to them.

So will the real Iraq please stand up? Certain people would recoil in sheer horror, "How can you believe the lies of GWB and the VRWC!!" (Vast Right Wing Conspiracy). Oh the horror! Thats when my liberal background begins to twitch a little. But then I think, why NOT believe them? Or, why should I believe the liberal left, anti-war crowd any more than I believe GWB? How is the little guy supposed to know? Am I to believe that the libs are any less capable of fabrication than the so-called neocons?

Both sides can't be right.. there can be only one Iraq. I suspect the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I know that the pro-American side sure feels better..

I feel lost.