Disappointed doomsayers
Mark Steyn:
"Just under a year ago, Baghdad fell. A great day, or so you would think — especially after the idiotic predictions of how the city would be a new Stalingrad, with coalition troops fighting street to street for months on end.
"But, instead of even a moment of sheepish embarrassment, all the experts — the United Nations, the French, the world's media, the nongovernmental organizations and the left in general — simply galloped on to even more idiotic predictions of doom.
"On April 12 last year, I wrote a column mocking the global naysayers' latest Top 10 Quagmires Of The Week.
"If it seems cruel to dredge them up, I do so because, the current ballyhoo from Democrats would make you think the administration policy in this area has been a disaster. It hasn't. Indeed, for 2½ years now, the naysayers to the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice approach to the war on terror have been close to 100 percent wrong on everything.
...
"Here are 10 predictions of doom from the conventional wisdom of a year ago, followed by some of my comments at the time, and a note on how things have turned out:
"(1) 'Iraq's slide into violent anarchy' (The Guardian, April 11, 2003). Say what you like about Saddam Hussein, but he ran a tight ship, and you didn't have to nail down the furniture.
"I predicted: 'A year from now, Basra will have a lower crime rate than most London boroughs.'
"One year on: Almost. According to the BBC, Basra is booming and its citizens are flush with new spending power. Despite Saddam's decision to empty the prisons of petty criminals on the eve of the war, in February British authorities reported crime in the city has fallen by 70 percent.
"(2) 'The head of the World Food Program has warned that Iraq could spiral into a massive humanitarian disaster.' (The Australian, April 11, 2003)
"One year on: No humanitarian disaster. Indeed, no 'humanitarians.' The NGOs fled Iraq in August and nobody noticed, confirming what some of us have suspected since Afghanistan: The permanent floating crap game of the humanitarian lobby has a vastly inflated sense of its own importance and is prone to massive distortion in the cause of self-promotion.
...
"(7) 'Rather than reforming the Muslim world, the conquest of Iraq will inflame it.' (Jeffrey Simpson, Toronto Globe and Mail, April 10, 2003)
"I predicted: 'Despite the best efforts of Western doom-mongers to rouse the Arab street, its attitude will remain: Start the jihad without me.'
"One year on: In Iran and Syria, it's the thug regimes that are under pressure. In the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat is broke, and the suicide bombers have lost their sugar daddy. In Libya, Col. Moammar Gadhafi has thrown in the towel.
"(8) 'Looting is always unsavory. Let's hope the Americans don't pilfer the oil.' (Brenda Linane, the Age of Melbourne, April 11, 2003)
"One year on: The only folks pilfering the oil were those officials and cronies living high off the hog from the U.N.'s disgusting Oil-For-Food program, a sewer of corruption that ought to force the resignation of Kofi Annan."
Mark Steyn:
"Just under a year ago, Baghdad fell. A great day, or so you would think — especially after the idiotic predictions of how the city would be a new Stalingrad, with coalition troops fighting street to street for months on end.
"But, instead of even a moment of sheepish embarrassment, all the experts — the United Nations, the French, the world's media, the nongovernmental organizations and the left in general — simply galloped on to even more idiotic predictions of doom.
"On April 12 last year, I wrote a column mocking the global naysayers' latest Top 10 Quagmires Of The Week.
"If it seems cruel to dredge them up, I do so because, the current ballyhoo from Democrats would make you think the administration policy in this area has been a disaster. It hasn't. Indeed, for 2½ years now, the naysayers to the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice approach to the war on terror have been close to 100 percent wrong on everything.
...
"Here are 10 predictions of doom from the conventional wisdom of a year ago, followed by some of my comments at the time, and a note on how things have turned out:
"(1) 'Iraq's slide into violent anarchy' (The Guardian, April 11, 2003). Say what you like about Saddam Hussein, but he ran a tight ship, and you didn't have to nail down the furniture.
"I predicted: 'A year from now, Basra will have a lower crime rate than most London boroughs.'
"One year on: Almost. According to the BBC, Basra is booming and its citizens are flush with new spending power. Despite Saddam's decision to empty the prisons of petty criminals on the eve of the war, in February British authorities reported crime in the city has fallen by 70 percent.
"(2) 'The head of the World Food Program has warned that Iraq could spiral into a massive humanitarian disaster.' (The Australian, April 11, 2003)
"One year on: No humanitarian disaster. Indeed, no 'humanitarians.' The NGOs fled Iraq in August and nobody noticed, confirming what some of us have suspected since Afghanistan: The permanent floating crap game of the humanitarian lobby has a vastly inflated sense of its own importance and is prone to massive distortion in the cause of self-promotion.
...
"(7) 'Rather than reforming the Muslim world, the conquest of Iraq will inflame it.' (Jeffrey Simpson, Toronto Globe and Mail, April 10, 2003)
"I predicted: 'Despite the best efforts of Western doom-mongers to rouse the Arab street, its attitude will remain: Start the jihad without me.'
"One year on: In Iran and Syria, it's the thug regimes that are under pressure. In the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat is broke, and the suicide bombers have lost their sugar daddy. In Libya, Col. Moammar Gadhafi has thrown in the towel.
"(8) 'Looting is always unsavory. Let's hope the Americans don't pilfer the oil.' (Brenda Linane, the Age of Melbourne, April 11, 2003)
"One year on: The only folks pilfering the oil were those officials and cronies living high off the hog from the U.N.'s disgusting Oil-For-Food program, a sewer of corruption that ought to force the resignation of Kofi Annan."
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