Tomorrow's Washington Post, has an article about Iraqis waiting for a war that they supposedly don't believe will happen. The writer seems to make the mistake, to paraphrase P. J. O'Rourke, of believing the publicly stated opinions of people in a country where it's illegal to hold certain opinions. But when it moves from man-on-the-street to man-in-the-bunker, the article reveals a disturbing disconnection from reality on the part of the Iraqi decision-making apparatus.

The Iraqis-in-waiting seem to believe any number of untrue things, sometimes simultaneously. They believe that "the world" will stop the US. They believe that they can "ride out" the war. They believe that the anti-war protests are more than a collection of gullible college professors and no-so-gullible communists. They believe that the anti-war protests matter. They believe that the Security Council matters. They believe that the French matter. If they try hard, they can even believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

Towards the bottom of the article, hidden, no doubt, below the fold and tucked in between ads for mattresses and hair care products, Mr. Chandrasekaran gets to the point. The Iraqis don't like Hussein, don't want to fight for him, don't want to see their country destroyed for him. The Iraqi leadership is deluding itself into playing the wrong game.