Nuts and fruitcake

So here it is, less than a week before Christmas, and bad news rides a blast of Arctic air here in Manhattan, chilling to the marrow. In Iraq, Muslim extremists have turned up the dial on the havoc meter, and today President Bush says Iraqi security forces are decidedly unpre- pared to defend their country as it strives to bring about democratic reform.

Yesterday explosions in Najaf and Karbala snuffed at least 67 lives in the bloodiest insurgent mischief since July, according to Terence Hunt of the Associated Press. In his article on the president’s press con- ference today, Hunt leads with Bush’s “sobering assessment” of the Iraq war: “No question about it, the bombers are having an effect.”

Meanwhile, Tim Reid, of the British TimesOnline, quotes the president’s “sobering prognosis for Iraq’s near-term future”: “I certainly don’t expect the process to be trouble-free.”

If I could I’d buy these guys a drink. Not because I think there’s anything particularly revelatory in their coverage of the president’s remarks. Bush has been saying all along that we should expect more trouble from insurgents as Iraq inches closer to free elections on January 30. And it wasn’t a secret that the performance of the Iraqi military and security forces during the assault against insurgents in Fallujah last month amounted to a mixed bag of desertions and sporadic acts of heroism.

If anything, the president’s frank observations should serve as a wake-up call to Iraqis. The United States is there to help them establish a country that is free of the iron-fisted madness that comes with religious extremism. But the Iraqis—all 16 million of them who are registered to vote next month—have got to want it. They have got to be willing to take up arms themselves to defend their fledgling democracy, and stop laying blame for their problems at the feet of the West.

The Iraqis would do well to take their cue from Anthony McAuliffe. Sixty years ago this December 22, McAuliffe was acting commander of the US 101st Airborne as it came under repeated attacks from the German army during the Battle of the Bulge, the last great counteroffensive launched by the Third Reich during World War II. On that day the Germans issued the US paratroopers holed up in Bastogne, Belgium, an ultimatum: surrender or face certain annihilation. Two hours later they received McAuliffe’s one-word reply: “Nuts.”