Putting the Grab in Abu Ghraib

It seems like every day Whiskey Bar has yet another amazing post. This morning's special is a few choice comments on Saddam's notorious jail, which has become...the occupation's notorious jail. As he points out, they didn't even change the name, but simply reopened it (recall that Saddam, in a desperate attempt to shore up his crumbling political support, declared a general amnesty in the fall of 2002).

I caught the segment of "The News Hour" which included Hisham Melhem, a Lebanese journalist--he was on a panel discussion that also featured Sy Hersch and Gary Solis. What he had to say was pretty damning. Melhem thinks the US destroyed its street cred in the Middle East. Not just Iraq--the whole region. And not just on a temporary basis, but basically, forever. Think about that for a while.

For years, I've wanted to visit the Middle East. While not specifically religious, I'm fascinated by the subject, and I have as much of a love of ancient history as a good amateur historian can. But I can now forget about any sort of extended exploration of the region. Imagine the difficulties the real historians will have.

While considering this, of course be aware that we've got--how say--a certain political and strategic interest in the Middle East. As Captain Ahab, aka Dick Cheney might say, "I seek the Great Black Gold." But there is no oil in Israel. And the other nations in the region will have no choice but to distance themselves from us, as we all but beg for help in trying to put back together the pieces of Iraq that we managed to shatter as we bulled our way through the china shop. Jeez, we broke it but good. All the super glue in the world can't put it back together, even if we managed to locate every shard.

$112 Billion Dollars and counting--and we don't even get to bring it home with us. How's that for limited government?