November 13, 2003 - The Italian Parliament suspended its session to mourn its sons and daughters slain in Iraq . When an equal number of Americans were killed in a single attack the week before, it was business as usual in Washington . 24 hours after the Nasiriya bombing the Italian Defense Minister was on the ground, surveying the damage and talking with the survivors. 24 hours after the Chinook went down the Secretary of Defense went on Television to tell us that it was a bad day and there were more like it in the offing, but we were doing well in Iraq .

The bombing of the Italian headquarters sent a message around the world, "You are not safe anywhere in Iraq ". The message was heard around the world. Tokyo announced that the plan to contribute non-combatant troops to the occupation was being "delayed". South Korea announced that its promised troop contribution was being scaled back from its 5,000 man commitment.

The US response has been muscular. Puff the Magic Dragon successfully destroyed an empty warehouse. An Apache attack helicopter successfully apprehended five men in a pickup truck Central Command claims was used in a mortar attack. Ground troops in Fallujah successfully engaged a truck load of chickens, "killing two". Paul Bremer is headed back to Baghdad with instructions to "Iraqify" this thing and do it now.

The President is headed to London where he demands that the British sanitize its streets and the photo-op backgrounds of anti-war demonstrators. Al Qaida might use the crowds as cover for an attack upon the President. It is all part of the new get tough approach to the burgeoning guerilla war in Iraq .

Six months ago the banner read. " Mission Accomplished". Now the administration is trying to figure out just what the mission in Baghdad is and just how it is to be accomplished. But then the Second Iraqi War has been in search of a rationale from its inception in the musings of the Project for a New American Century. It has been a war that has been less about policy that it is about politics.

Rome is able to recognize and mourn its dead. Washington cannot lest the people see the cord connecting Bush to the bodybags and resolve to cut it with their ballots. Imperial Rome consolidated its domestic power by giving the plebeians bread and circuses. Iraq is Imperial Washington's circus. Forget the bread. It goes to the patricians.