Babylonian Potpourri

“The person who is in charge is me.” — President George W. Bush

Not since the famous declaration of Alexander Haig that “I am in charge” have such words been so elequently spoken, indeed not since Truman proclaimed that “The buck stops here.”

The President’s remarks were largely in reply to critics who maintain that he needs to assert more control over things in Iraq. Even Republican Senator Bob Lugar stated that “The President has to be President” in an equal show of oratory splendor. Democrat and presidential hopeful John Kerry was less conciliatory, refering to Bush policies as “haphazard, shotgun, shoot-from-the-hip diplomacy.”

And which policies are they upset about? What seems to them to be loss of control?

Is it that we have been averaging about 22 attacks on American soldiers each day for the last week? That 320 American soldiers have died in this conflict, over 90 of them after hostilities were declared over? That suicide bombers, guerilla attacks, and other random acts of violence are now common? Is it that Iraq has become a terrorist Mecca?

Is it the American soldiers who, while not being attacked, are bulldozing farmers’ fields in an attempt to force them to become informants? Or maybe it’s the soldiers’ letters ghost-written by the Administration and sent to hometown newspapers saying how great things are in Iraq, how proud they are to serve there. Wow, that’s the way to bring peace and stability to the region.

Maybe it’s the fact that various American officials can’t make up their minds whether Saddam Hussein is or is not anywhere near his hometown of Tikrit?

Oh, no, it must be that public opinion of the war has soured, particularly in Iraq.

Speaking of which, there are some rather large hurdles to getting Americans out of the country, since almost everyone agrees that now that we’ve gone and removed the government and destroyed the infrastructure we can’t just pack up our tanks, say what a lovely time we had, so sorry about the mess, and go home. There is a lot ofreconstruction to be done. Something like $87 billion dollars worth of reconstruction. That’s a enough money that people are paying attention. Of course, if we just put Iraqis to work and give them paychecks for this, it would probably cost more like $87 million — partly because we would not be lining the pockets of American corporations, partly because wages are lower there, partly because the locals would be building it instead of trying to blow it up.

The UN would like to set a deadline of December 15 for getting started on a Constitution and an interim government. This is unquestionably another prerequisite for American forces leaving Iraq. Unfortunately, the same diversity we claim to cherish here in the States makes it difficult to even decide who should have a voice in writing the Constitution and how much power various ethnic and religious groups should have. They could spend until December 15 just arguing about who should bring coffee and donuts for their first meeting. More than one person has suggested just giving them a finished document — perhaps one from their own past — and letting them improve upon it. Retired Colonel John Warden has written some excellent thoughts on Iraq exit strategy.

Here at home, prepare to have your winter coats scrutinized, and warn the kids that the nice TSA officer might have to inspect their teddy bears more closely than usual. It seems that Homeland Security has decided the Bad Guys can use a nice fluffy explosive called “nitrocellulose.”

The War on Terror has certainly not made me feel more secure.