Justice American style

Yup, Saddam Hussein's trial pretty much confirms the obvious: that Iraq is a lot worse off in many ways than it was before Hussein was deposed.

"I watched some of the trial and I was upset, because his rule was better than what we have today," Qusay Muhammad, 24, said as he sold tea from a sidewalk booth. "I don't mean to say I love Saddam. I'm just making a comparison between the old regime and the government today."

Conservatives in particular should know that this sort of sentimentality for a bygone era always spells trouble for the current order, which in this case is America and whatever current semblance of an Iraqi government it's trying to prop up.

This anecdote strikes me as particularly telling, too, in that it isn't unflinching praise for Hussein from one Sunni Muslim to another. Without doubt, there were excesses and atrocities on Hussein's watch that no one should want to repeat, and for which a full and proper reckoning should be made.

But, it just goes to show that you need more than bayonets and "smart bombs" to build a democracy, that it can't be imposed by force from without, that forces from within have to do the heavy lifting throughout the entirety of the process.

Then again, we all knew this already. Or at least the sensible among us did.