A Little Patience, Please

The absolute monarchs of the op-ed pages and television commentary predicted fearful outcomes to the Iraqi Freedom operation—hundreds of thousands of casualties on all sides, Baghdad razed, the Muslim world in an uproar, every Arab an Osama bin Laden. Well, things haven’t turned out like that. President Bush and his administration explained what they would do, and did it. Unwilling to give credit where credit is due, the absolute monarchs have moved on to predict fresh fearful outcomes—a Khomeinist dictatorship of the Shia ayatollahs, an intifada against the American “occupation,” every Arab once again an Osama bin Laden. What is most striking in this immense failure: the bias against the administration, the ignorance, or the contrast with the professionalism of the military?

When a totalitarian regime is overthrown, the very first likelihood is the settling of scores. In 1945 concentration-camp survivors killed their SS guards when they could. In Budapest during the revolution of 1956, the crowds hanged Communist secret policemen on lamp-posts. In a final showdown with the Communists, even the newly democratic Boris Yeltsin left many dead when his tanks shelled the Moscow White House.

About the Author

David Pryce-Jones

David Pryce-Jones (1936–2025) was a British author and commentator and served as a senior editor of National Review.

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The absolute monarchs of the op-ed pages and television commentary predicted fearful outcomes to the Iraqi Freedom operation—hundreds of thousands of casualties on all sides, Baghdad razed, the Muslim world in an uproar, every Arab an Osama bin Laden. Well, things haven’t turned out like that. President Bush and his administration explained what they would do, and did it. Unwilling to give credit where credit is due, the absolute monarchs have moved on to predict fresh fearful outcomes—a Khomeinist dictatorship of the Shia ayatollahs, an intifada against the American “occupation,” every Arab once again an Osama bin Laden. What is most striking in this immense failure: the bias against the administration, the ignorance, or the contrast with the professionalism of the military?

When a totalitarian regime is overthrown, the very first likelihood is the settling of scores. In 1945 concentration-camp survivors killed their SS guards when they could. In Budapest during the revolution of 1956, the crowds hanged Communist secret policemen on lamp-posts. In a final showdown with the Communists, even the newly democratic Boris Yeltsin left many dead when his tanks shelled the Moscow White House.