Girl-bonding time on the pages of the Globe. Joan's found some friends from Morocco, and they're bonding over their dislike of the Iraq War. How ironic that a Globe columnist needs to import soul-mates from the Middle East. You see, we have to take a lesson from from the Arab press...Iraq War bad. Afghanistan is OK, they say, but not Iraq. Why, we're not told. It would seem that one fight has been relatively easy, while the other has been difficult -- in large measure thanks to the propaganda efforts of these self-same "journalists" we're now supposed to take advise from. You see, Iraq is making us look bad to the Arab world...now why would that be? Who's providing the explanations, portrayals and coverage of that effort? And what do these Arab journalists and Vennochi suggest for a solution? That is not provided, either.

The answer is apparently provided in the example of Morocco itself -- slow, steady pressure and moderate reforms. Of course, this is hardly a universally useful example. Morocco has always been one of the most liberal and Western-oriented Arab states, even dealing with Israel behind the scenes. To the extent that reform is occurring there, it's because their King (!) is allowing it to occur. But what's happening in Morocco is not necessarily what would happen elsewhere, and Morocco is a state that threatens no one (other than with some of its immigrants, apparently) and who's reformation holds no urgency whatsoever. How Orientalist of Vennochi to glot all of the Arab/Muslim world into one package and imagine the same solutions and processes would work from literally one end of the Middle East to the other.

What a load of self-justifying crap.

A clear message on Iraq

If they were really reformists, it would be their war, too.