‘Yes, but…’

[NNN0LHI]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9352971/

<snip>One of the most powerful — and disturbing — passages in “The Assassins’ Gate” relates to an August 2003 visit by Paul Bremer and his aides to a maternity hospital in the southern Iraqi town of Diwaniya.

Bremer, who was the U.S. administrator if Iraq until handing it over to Iraqi officials in June 2004, thought he was going to see a happy scene. Instead, he stumbled in to a scene where children were dying. Incubators were not working due to the power failures, and infant mortality had doubled.

Bremer’s aides tried to stress the positive, repeatedly asking doctors if things weren’t better without Saddam. The somber doctors kept saying “yes, but…” and politely requesting more electricity and security. The aides, meanwhile, kept turning the conversation around to how things were better and would improve further.

Throughout Shadid’s and Packer’s books, Iraqis say they are grateful Saddam is gone, but…

And it is a hugely important "but." Or, more accurately, a "why" — why did the Americans allow their country to plunge into chaos in the process?