Field Trip

Ralph Peters reports that on Tuesday, "80 terrorists in police uniforms raided an Iraqi research institute in Baghdad, rounded up 100-plus male students, loaded them into vehicles in broad daylight and drove away. ...The students probably will be executed and dumped somewhere. Partly for the crime of wanting to study and build a future, but primarily just to step up the level of terror yet again." This terrorism will have been facilitated by complicity within the Iraqi government.

Do they have pre-schools in Baghdad? Get it?

Who puts his shoulder to the plow, and then turns away from the work, is unworthy of any blessing. A paraphrase. Plowing tears up the earth. It is an assault on nature. Violent. The same can be done to a society.

We have plowed the plains of Sumer, and uncovered demons. Did we think this would not happen? Do we think the task is competed because of it? Locusts devour what they touch. They will consume shoe leather and ax handles. Flyswatters do not work on them. To destroy locusts, flames must reach into the sky.

Peters asks, "Are we willing to kill mass murderers and cold-blooded executioners on the spot? If not, we can't win, no matter what else we do." Gentle Reader, what, pray, might you think the answer to be? My answer has long been recorded, as here or here. I am certain, utterly certain that we will not have a meaningful crackdown on the terror death squads. Am I mistaken in thinking that our soldiers are given sensitivity training? That I can even have the misconception is answer enough.

I will not consider the war lost, however. This enterprise is not a mere Iraq war, but a far greater thing. The battle will be lost, the Iraq battle. There -- I said it. It is lost when 80 murderers brazenly load 100 students into vans and cart them away to their deaths -- and the rest of the city proceeds as usual. Martial law should have been declared.

When did our troops start wearing blue helmets? But it's not our troops, of course. It's the big-crested capons who hold back the sword. It is not yet the age when swords should be beaten into plowshares. The lion lays down with the lamb inside its belly. The small child plays at the vipers' den and dies in agony. Savage ravaging beasts are for killing.

"Our 'humanity,'" says Peters, "is cowardice masquerading as morality. We're protecting self-appointed religious executioners with our emphasis on a 'universal code of behavior' that only exists in our fantasies. By letting the thugs run the streets, we've abandoned the millions of Iraqis who really would prefer peaceful lives and a modicum of progress." I quote because I could not say it better.

It seems that the demons in Mesopotamia are no longer confined within the earth. They walk openly above ground. They ride in convoys. Let's call it a parade. A Diversity Day parade. You bring the beer. I'll bring the fireworks.


J