April 4, 2003 - The acknowledged allied body count stands at 110 tonight not counting the 18 Kurds and their companions that we killed today. Baghdad is invested and its airport, though not quite secure, is landing military flights. American tank columns race through the capitol city to impress the enemy. The cost of the exercise was one dead tank commander, one dead tank and several wounded. They tell us that the escape routes to Tikrit, Damascus or Amman have been plugged by special operations units; that the quarry is trapped in his den.

The rationale for this military excursion has been to disarm the Iraqi Regime from its chemical, biological, and radiological weapons of mass destruction. The world can be assured that this objective has been achieved. No such weapons have been found, and despite being cornered in his hole, surrounded by overwhelming conventional force, the Iraqi despot has not loosed that fearsome arsenal even as tank columns probe into Baghdad seemingly at will. It is powerful evidence that the disarmament for which the invasion was launched had been achieved before the war started.

The Pentagon’s military governor, General Garner (Retired) is poised in Kuwait, ready to take his post in control of Iraqi territory. As is becoming the norm in such matters, the quarry of the hunt has not been run to earth. Saddam is either dead or fled or gone to ground along with his sons. Will they Join Osama Bin Laden and Mohammed Omar in the realm of shadows, shadows that shelter an underground resistance to US hegemony?

Secretary Rumsfeld threatens Syria with “serious consequences”, the shorthand expression of Resolution 1441 that the United States interprets as justification for the Second Iraqi War. Like the Taliban defiance is Syria’s answer. Even as we watch the images of conflict the Iraqi Minister of Information denies the existence of the combat we are witnessing. It is a surreal view seen through an imperfect looking glass.

I am reminded on an ancient tale of the Frog and the Scorpion. The Frog was sitting on the bank of the Tigris when the Scorpion came up and asked to be carried across the river, “Do you think me crazy,” asked the Frog, “If I took you on my back, you would sting me and I would die.” The Scorpion replied, “Don’t be a fool! If I would sting you then I would drown. Carry me across the river and we will both be quite safe.” The Frog thought and he was satisfied with the Scorpion’s logic and did as he was asked. Half way across the River the Scorpion sank his stinger into the Frog’s back. “Scorpion, why did you sting? Now we are both doomed,” cried the Frog. The Scorpion replied, “This is the Middle East.”

It remains to be seen whether we are the Scorpion or the Frog but it is certain that we have plunged into the Tigris and it is, indeed, the Middle East.