The one I like: (paraphrasing) "The vast majority of Iraq is peaceful. The troublemaking is limited to a small region."

Unsaid: The small region is where 90% of the people live.

* * *

This calls for drastic action by the Bush Administration, like another flight-suited photo-op, or some visits to some war widows. Preferably ones whose husbands were killed *before* the End of Major Combat Operations.

Actually they are mostly from the same places as the fedayeen who streamed into Iraq during the war: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, the Palestinian Territories, and some are Iraqi also. Not sure what you mean by "North Iraq" - haven't heard anyone else use that term. Do you mean Kurdistan? That's doubtful - the Kurds really like us.

The "small region" is the Sunni Triangle, Saddam's family heartland, and it's not where 90% of the people live.

But don't let a few facts stand in the way of elegant snarkiness.

As opposed to that haven of peace and quiet Baghdad?

Not sure what you mean by "North Iraq" - haven't heard anyone else use that term. Do you mean Kurdistan?

I can't figure it out. Yehudit, are you too young to get the joke, did you just miss it, or are you ignoring it? Think "Vietnam." Think "quagmire." Think "fuck, here we go again."

(Gods, when the hell did I turn 40, and when did my cultural assumptions become obsolete, anyway?)

Think "Those who squeeze their eyes shut, stick their fingers in their ears, and sing 'La la la la la la ... I can't hear you!' during history lessons are doomed to repeat them."

(Gods, when the hell did I turn 40, and when did my cultural assumptions become obsolete, anyway?)

But they're not obsolete, really they aren't...

"History repeats itself - first as tragedy, then as farce." -- Karl Marx

(It's o.k. if you're not laughing though.)