Washblog

The tensions there are so volatile, and the infrastructure so fragile, that the country could easily be thrown into catastrophic collapse. We may witness not only rampant slaughter all over the country, but also epidemics of disease among an already exhausted populace.

To all those who still support the war: how do you sleep at night? Any regrets yet?

Unlike some peace activists, I am not smug about having had my fears confirmed. I don't feel good about being "right." I'm very angry and depressed to think there might be little we can do to stop what might now unfold.

In "Julius Caesar," Antony speaks of the civil war that is about to consume Italy, but he could just as well be speaking of the civil war we unleashed in Iraq:

"A curse shall light upon the limbs of men:
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy:
Blood and destruction shall be so in use,
And dreadful objects so familiar,
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quartered with the hands of war:
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds,
And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines, with a monarch's voice,
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial."

I'm also reminded of something Cesare Pavese wrote in "House on the Hill": "Every war is a civil war because every fallen man resembles someone who lives . . . "