First militant: “I confess to being quite dispirited this day, Fahad. For if the grapevine is to be believed, Iraqi locals—our own Arab brethren (peace be upon them)—turned over brother Amir Khalaf Fanoos to the infidel occupiers, siding with the West in this great war to restore the Caliphate and return the Arab world to its long dormant greatness and preeminence.” Second militant: “Yes, but Isa—beleaguered people often become confused
December 10, 2005
December 10, 2005
Retreat and Defeat
From “Panic in Iraq,” Norman Podhoretz, Commentary, Jan 2006: Like, I am sure, many other believers in what this country has been trying to do in the Middle East and particularly in Iraq, I have found my thoughts returning in the past year to something that Tom Paine, writing at an especially dark moment of the American Revolution, said about such times. They are, he memorably wrote, “the times that
December 10, 2005
a fourth very brief conversation with my stylish and sexy new rimless glasses
me: “I don’t want to freak you out or anything, and I realize this all happening very quickly—but I really do think I’m falling in –” new rimless glasses: “– Shhhhhhh. Let’s don’t, okay? Just relax. Enjoy the moment.”
December 10, 2005
We know you’re not feeling all that great, but…c’mon, dude. It’s Friday! We want the dancing armadillo—
—Yeah, yeah, I know. But cut the little fella some slack, would you? In addition to spending last night keeping me company in the ER, the poor bastard’s got a few troubles of his own, having borrowed $6300 from the local Wop loanshark to buy his way into a high-stakes poker game, where he lost everything when some preternaturally lucky dead-toothed Brit—drunk on Thomas Hardy Ale and farting like a