The Clusterfuck Nation Chronicle

Commentary on the Flux of Events

Who was it -- somebody help me here -- maybe George Santayana who declared famously that history repeats itself, moving from tragedy to farce. Because what seems to be going on in Iraq as I write is like that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones, confronted by a vicious sword-wielding Arab, girds his loins, gazes at the silly bullwhip in his hand, has an epiphany, casts aside the bullwhip, reaches for his pistol, and summarily plugs the vicious (and now ridiculous) sword-wielding Arab.

Is that what's going on?? Is it possible that Saddam was feckless enough to sit in one of his downtown Baghdad presidential palaces a few minutes before the get-out-of-Dodge ultimatum, and that one of our bombs either nailed him, maimed him, or turned his whole gang against him?

Or is it a game -- as one guy on CNN put it -- of Rope-a-dope, Saddam hoping to draw thousands of over-confident American and British soldiers into his lair where he will proceed to pour on the nerve gas? Who the fuck knows?

I must say I am astonished that he didn't fire up all the oil wells in the country at once on Wednesday. Who would have though Saddam would want to go down in the annals of Allah as a humanitarian softie rather than a flaming martyr. Will his apparent disgrace put a damper on Jihad-o-rama? The Islamic world is already pretty demoralized. It's hard to imagine that an Iraq roll-over will inspire recruits for martyrdom quite the way that an Alamo-style defense of Baghdad might (Saddam starring as Davey Crockett).

Since events are moving so quickly I will shut up for now and check in later.