I was going to post something about the story I heard on NPR last night, about the international lawyers who somehow, absurdly, think that it will not be possible for us to administer Iraq, or control its oil, because it would be “against international law,” but Den Beste has done it already, and there’s little left to be said.

Except that it reminds me (as many things do) of a Simpsons episode. The family is trying to escape some predicament, and are in the car getting ready to roll, but for some reason (I don’t recall why) Homer doesn’t have his driver’s license.

Lisa cries, “Dad! We can’t go–you don’t have your driver’s license.” Homer, dismayed, nonetheless grits his teeth and mutters, “Well, I’m going to try anyway.”

He turns the key, the car starts, and off he goes.

Elated, he cries, “Hey, it worked!”

I was going to post something about the story I heard on NPR last night, about the international lawyers who somehow, absurdly, think that it will not be possible for us to administer Iraq, or control its oil, because it would be “against international law,” but Den Beste has done it already, and there’s little left to be said.

Except that it reminds me (as many things do) of a Simpsons episode. The family is trying to escape some predicament, and are in the car getting ready to roll, but for some reason (I don’t recall why) Homer doesn’t have his driver’s license.

Lisa cries, “Dad! We can’t go–you don’t have your driver’s license.” Homer, dismayed, nonetheless grits his teeth and mutters, “Well, I’m going to try anyway.”

He turns the key, the car starts, and off he goes.

Elated, he cries, “Hey, it worked!”

Courtesy of Lileks, I’ve added a new logo up there on the left, to represent American values, as seen by an anticipatory Iraqi.

Right on.

Of course, he wouldn’t have said that if he’d ever tried rum.

Michael Kelly was killed in a vehicle rollover in Iraq. He wrote many great columns over the years. Here is his last dispatch, from yesterday.

This is truly a terrible loss to all who admire great journalism.

[Update at 10:50 AM PST]

It strikes me that I gave him short shrift (partly because I didn’t have any experience of him in that way) but he was supposedly a great editor as well. There are some good initial obits over at The Corner (just keep scrolling).

[Update at 1:20 PM PST]

It didn’t take long for Peggy Noonan to come up with very moving thoughts on the death of Michael Kelly.

He [sic] remains will come home now soon enough, and I hope what comes home is met with an honor guard, for he has earned it, and a flag, for he loved his country, and a snapped salute, for that is one way to show respect. And maybe it would be good if this son of Washington–born there, educated there, drawn to its great industry, politics and the reporting of it–were to find his final rest nearby, among those who fought with distinction for America. Michael Kelly went at great peril to be with U.S. troops, and he fell among US troops, while trying to tell the story of U.S. troops. So perhaps his final rest should be with U.S. troops, in Arlington, where we put so many heroes.

While the war was much shorter, he may become known as this war’s Ernie Pyle, but I think that such an assessment would dramatically overshadow his many journalistic accomplishments.

Michael Kramer lays out the possible reasons that we haven’t been attacked with chemical or bioweapons. My vote is that Saddam can’t give the order, due to lack of consciousness, or acquisition of ambient temperature, and that no one else is willing to.

The least likely explanation, of course, is that they don’t have them.

Michael Kramer lays out the possible reasons that we haven’t been attacked with chemical or bioweapons. My vote is that Saddam can’t give the order, due to lack of consciousness, or acquisition of ambient temperature, and that no one else is willing to.

The least likely explanation, of course, is that they don’t have them.

Michael Kramer lays out the possible reasons that we haven’t been attacked with chemical or bioweapons. My vote is that Saddam can’t give the order, due to lack of consciousness, or acquisition of ambient temperature, and that no one else is willing to.

The least likely explanation, of course, is that they don’t have them.

The Arab world is viewing our presence in Iraq as an invasion, which I suppose that, technically, it is. But if that’s so, we’re not the only ones. If this article is correct, there is another set of foreign invaders–thousands of Islamic fundamentalist terrorists–from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, perhaps the West Bank and Gaza, similar to the ones who colonized Afghanistan with the help of the home-grown Taliban.

Of course, there’s a distinction. Our invasion is to throw off a tyranny, after which we’ll leave, at least if we’re not asked to stay (as we were in Germany and Japan, and Korea). Theirs is to preserve one, or install another, and they have no intention of ever relinquishing power.

If it does come down to urban warfare in Baghdad, I suspect that these foreign invaders will hold out to the end, an end that may be brutally bitter. And the biggest fear that I have is not major US casualties (though there will be some), but massive Iraqi civilian casualties perpetrated by the kind of people who are not just indifferent to the loss of human life but, as we saw a year and a half ago, revel in it.

I hereby take the pledge to never again (not that I’ve been in the habit of it) modify the phrase “Republican Guard” with the adjective “elite.” I wish that the rest of the media would stop doing so. It’s either redundant, or pointless, because the only sense in which they are “elite” is in relation to half-starving conscripts with guns in their back. Our non-coms are more elite than their officers, in terms of weaponry, motivation and fighting ability.

I hereby take the pledge to never again (not that I’ve been in the habit of it) modify the phrase “Republican Guard” with the adjective “elite.” I wish that the rest of the media would stop doing so. It’s either redundant, or pointless, because the only sense in which they are “elite” is in relation to half-starving conscripts with guns in their back. Our non-coms are more elite than their officers, in terms of weaponry, motivation and fighting ability.