Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Weird Times in Fallujah

A lot of people are talking about that 'secret letter from Iraq' that Time printed. I read it, and I'm not sure it's all that enlightening on a policy level; the gist of it is that the situation sucks, which we kind of already know (and anyone who doesn't isn't ever going to get it at this point--50 years from now in the Old Wingnuts' Home they'll still be flapping their toothless gums about how we could have made Iraq a shiny happy peaceful pro-American democracy if those damn hippy George Soros Michael Moore Hillary Clinton ANSWER types hadn't sapped America's will).

It does, however, have one striking bit of bleak humor:

Most Surreal Moment — Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets. 26 to be exact. We had put the word out earlier in the day to the Marines in Fallujah that we were looking for Bad Guy X, who was described as a midget. Little did I know that Fallujah was home to a small community of midgets, who banded together for support since they were considered as social outcasts. The Marines were anxious to get back to the midget colony to bring in the rest of the midget suspects, but I called off the search, figuring Bad Guy X was long gone on his short legs after seeing his companions rounded up by the giant infidels.
It's like a parable for the occupation as a whole...as written by Werner Herzog1. This is what we've come to: winning the hearts and minds of Iraq, one dwarf community at a time.

[Hat tip: Kevin Drum.]


1Or, if you want to go lowbrow, Sam Newfield.

[That's all, folks]