One Last Shot

This morning, after reading my paper, I've been contemplating the horror of the situation in Iraq, and, indeed, in a large portion of the Middle East. The catastrophic "what ifs" are multiple and awful to contemplate.

I read about my own senator, David Vitter, who supports the president's "surge" as the "final shot", the "last chance for the Iraqis to step up". Oh, the bitter irony. We went to Iraq and destroyed the country, its infrastructure, its institutions, and turned it into a killing field. Now we want the Iraqis to "step up" to fix what we have destroyed. At least "final shot" is a little more creative than the "one last shot" that we have been hearing about for months - no - years. Solution: send in more troops to serve as targets, for they are unlikely to have any effect on the violence and chaos.

I turn away from the big picture, which I find too disturbing, and zoom in on a small piece of the picture, the Green Zone. As I wonder what it will take for the president and his supporters to face the reality of Iraq, I think of the Green Zone, the enormous guarded compound situated in the center of Baghdad. What if the defense of the Green Zone fails? Surely, the military leadership has a plan for this possibility. They must, surely they must. What is the plan? What would they do? Of course, if there is a plan, it is top secret, as is so much else with the Bush maladministration.

"One last shot" will no more give us a decent way out of Iraq, much less a win, than the "one last shot" will get the drunk out of the bar before he collapses.

Update: Here's the link to the story in the Times-Picayune.