Surprise, surprise, even people under a brutal dictatorship fight for their country against foreign invaders.

The Soviets defended their country for Stalin, the Germans for Hitler and the Mexicans for Santa Anna, all brutal dictators with two things in common: an invading army to portray as a threat to the homeland, and a populace terrified of retribution should the government survive.

"The most famous poster from World War II is a poster of a mother and it says, `Defend the motherland,' '' said Michael McFaul, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and an expert on Russia. "It's not to defend Stalin, it's not to defend communism, even.. That was an interesting change in the rhetoric at the time. It was, 'Our country has just been invaded.' ''

That very sentiment appears to be taking hold in Iraq.

It is a little frustrating being reduced to saying "I told you so." To me, the rhetoric from the neo-cons about transforming the Middle East by establishing a domino effect of democracies taking hold among a grateful populace was ahistorical fantasies of the worst idealistic kind. Oh well, it is early yet, and perhaps worst-case scenarios can still be avoided.