Final Word from Thursday, April 24, 2003
Amb. Craig Stapleton told the Prague Post that whether the U.S. and its allies should have gone into Iraq is an irrelevant question, because the war has been won. It was a tremendous success, he said, so there's no point arguing the questions that President Václav Klaus raised before it was over. Stapleton's comment was an effort to calm his dispute with Klaus, but he also made clear the U.S.'s post-Iraq attitude. MFD summed it up today by saying the U.S. will simply do what it wants in Iraq, even if it means violating international rules. Some realists will accept that "might makes right," and a greater acknowledgment of the post-Iraq balance is already visible in some Czech politicians. Other people, though, will become "dissidents" to the perceived American hegemony. For many Czechs, the tightening this week by the embassy of the visa requirement is a close-to-home example of how the U.S. will throw its weight around.