from today's new york times:

"Around 5:30 p.m. Monday, two men were arguing on the street when one pulled a gun and fired a shot into the air, residents and shopkeepers said. At that moment, a convoy of American Army trucks passed by.

Residents said the soldiers began shooting indiscriminately, killing three people and wounding at least four. As the soldiers continued firing, they blasted out shop and car windows for a three-block stretch on the busy street, witnesses said."

i understand that american soldiers in iraq are scared. and i understand that the situation is volatile. but when americans summarily execute people for arguing, or even for attempted sabotage (as happened in fallujah yesterday), we cannot be said to be "liberating iraq." it's tempting at this point to include a question about whether this is something americans would do to other americans in america -- clearly, the answer is no. that's too easy; the situation is different. but i have to hope that the americans in charge of our occupation of iraq consider the fact that the stated purpose of the occupation continues to be, in many senses, to mold iraq into something more american.

this is the sense in which kristof's column from yesterday was quite smart -- it shows us the difficulty and danger of imposing democracy, in iraq or anywhere. everyone wants to see a more democratic iraq. but as kristof points out, we should be prepared for a democracy that chooses fundamentalism and repression. and as recent experience has shown, we should also be prepared for american democracy to mean something different than it has before when this is all over...which is kind of a hefty price tag for this war, if you ask me.