Iraq in Microcosm

Here, in two links, is our entire current campaign in Iraq writ small.

In the first, a video clip, Army PFC Stephen Tschiderer, a medic, is shot square in the chest by roachlums who begin the ritual incantation to their insect god when they see that they've hit him.

Thank the Real God for the American inventiveness that gave us body armor, however: Tschiderer gets right back up and takes cover. In the last few frames of the video, the camaraman interrupts the sniper, who is rocking ritualistically back and forth on his haunches. One can imagine the exchange in English:

Sniperroach: "Allahu akhbar, Allahu Akh...."

Cameraroach: "Oh Shiite, Abdul, he just got up!"

Sniperroach: "What th' Allah!?"

The Rest of the Story is not shown on the video: Tschiderer's team located the sniper and shot him. Tschiderer tracked him down by his blood trail, handcuffed him and treated his wounds.

Once again, our moral and material superiority over the enemies of civilization is proven...

And while we're on the subject of the moral superiority of sacrifice over Roachlam and all the other manifestations of insect worship, consider Ben Stein's (as in "Win Ben Stein's Money") column from yesterday's NYT (which helps explain why he's my favorite UberKapitalist) :

Remember that it all depends on the fighting men and women, not on the people in finance. It depends on the guys whose names you will never know, guys who come home and work - not at jobs in which helicopters ferry them to secret-deal meetings in New York or London, but at jobs in places like a car wash in Burleson, Tex., where one of the men who captured Saddam Hussein is working without complaint and with barely mentioning that he was in Iraq.

That is, if they come home with all their limbs - or if they come home at all.

Monk