I’m waiting for the punchline. As the Americans joyride around Baghdad and root out dangerous agricultural products, I can’t lose the sickening feeling that there’s going to be some horrific twist. (I don’t doubt that there are some NBC weapons somewhere. Not in the quantities that we’ve been promised and unlikely to be used, but out there, somewhere.)

But I think I’ll be waiting and worrying for a long time, because the backlash won’t be a big, messy Fedayeen last stand. It’s more likely to come after Liberation, in sniper and bomb attacks and kidnappings, just like in Afghanistan.