A little bit of war

        Have we all been keeping up
        with the Mission Accomplish-
        ed, so many years ago, now,
        that we've all but washed
        our hands of our own triumph?

        Ramadi has bit the dust again.
        Is this the President's "whack-
        a-mole" image, come to recur-
        ring life? Is it another gurg-
        ling simmer in the tardily dy-
        ing pot of sectarian strife?

        I don't think so. I think it's
        yet another nail in the coffin
        of the pretense we prolifically
        pursue, that we can have a lit-
        tle bit of war, and deny it, as
        we "move on."

        If nothing else, I hope the in-
        numerable American martyrs we'll
        revisit this weekend at Arlington
        will be spared the contemptibly
        false non sequitur, "insurrection,"
        for counter-attacks against an ab-
        solutely inachievable mission. An
        insurrection presumes an establish-
        ed government; what we observe is
        non-compliance with our fantasies. 
        
        The dead deserve their language.