If there was a common image summoned up by the protests and angry commentaries, it was of the United States as an imperial power intoxicated by its military supremacy but receiving a lesson in the price of arrogance by unexpected Iraqi resistance.
"Armed force and coercion are the antonyms of democracy," the editorial said, "so isn't using tanks and cannons to spit out `liberty' and `democracy' a mite ironic?"
"What Bush is doing is conquering with military force anybody who opposes him," said Shinichi Iida, a 25-year-old university student. "I think it's the most barbaric act in the world."

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