>Christian Parenti understands one crucial point -- Iraqis' self
>respect -- much better than Doug makes him sound like
There are at least two points here that you're conflating. Iraqis want the Americans out (and a lot more than they did a year ago, when there was some willingness to cut the U.S. some slack), but the resistance includes some really bad people (theocrats and semi-fascist Ba'athists). The situation sounds extremely messy and complicated, and not at all appropriate to simple tales about self-respect.
Doug