Vice-President Joe Biden presided in Baghdad over a naturalization ceremony, where 237 U.S. troops — comprising immigrants from places such as Mexico and Haiti and also some native Iraqi interpreters — were sworn in as American citizens. The ceremony took place in the late Saddam Hussein’s former Al-Faw Palace. CNN quotes the VP:

We did it in Saddam’s palace and I can think of nothing better. That S.O.B. is rolling over in his grave right now.

So, there’s the Vice-President of the United States, publicly spitting on Saddam Hussein’s grave and reveling in the performance of an American ceremony of naturalization in one of his former residences.

Do I have a problem with it? Not particularly. To the victor go the spoils, as they say, and the U.S. military sure beat the hell out of Saddam, and he deserved no less than what he got; it was ultimately a treatment considerably kinder than that which he meted out to the Iraqi people for decades.

What I’m trying to imagine, however, is the reaction that would ensue had such remarks been made by President Bush or Vice-President Cheney: standing on Iraqi territory, with U.S. flags flying high, and rejoicing in that son-of-a-bitch Saddam Hussein rolling over in his grave. How gauche. How jingoistic. How coarse. Cowboy diplomacy isn’t even the half of it. “This is exactly what the world hates about America,” is what we’d be told by our nannies on the New York Times editorial page and elsewhere. Needlessly provocative, inflammatory and juvenile.

And those would be just some of the milder criticisms we’d have heard if Bush or Cheney had ever spoken like this in such a context (which, of-course, they did not).

But I don’t criticize Joe for it. I hope the troops got a kick out of our new vice-president. They deserve all the fun they can come by.

And Joe said some other things I’d laud even more:

Biden extolled America’s diversity and its destination as a refuge for immigrants, saying newcomers are the “lifeblood” of the country and that “there’s always room for more.”

“As corny as it sounds, damn I’m proud to be an American,” he said. “Thanks for choosing us. You are the reason why America is strong.”

Thanking the troops from their military service, Biden said “you are the source of our freedom, you and all who came before you.”

“What a sight you are today. What a powerful symbol for the rest of the world you are,” he said.

Mentioning America’s founding fathers, Biden told the new Americans from across the world that “as of today they’re your founding fathers.”

Darned right. Only one thing, Joe: There’s no need to preface your pride in being an American with that little apology, “as corny as it sounds.” It may be corny to a lot of people with whom you are regularly hanging out in your new administration, but it’s really not corny — not at all. And it is especially not corny on the Fourth of July.

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