So, Deputy Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz has no idea when the American troops are going to leave Iraq because it all depends on when Iraqis "are" or "feel" secure. I can't quite remember which it is. But, while I personally doubt that Iraqi security is the issue, whether they "are" or "feel" secure obviously makes a difference.
As anybody knows who's made preparations for a hurricane, for example, things are secure when they are either tied up or locked down, or both. Same goes for people. And it doesn't make a whole lot of difference whether they do it to themselves or let others do it to them. Things and people are secure when they can't move around freely.
If that's the criterion, then the residents of Fallujah who hunkered in their houses while the Americans, secure in their tanks, paraded through the city, have gotten the message and were obviously convincing.
But, when the Americans left, the Iraqis came rushing out of their houses and swarmed through the streets. And that was not reassuring. After all, a goodly number of our soldiers probably joined up so they wouldn't be "hanging out" on the streets or at the mall. Americans consider themselves secure when they are locked in their homes, their places of business or their cars. Iraqis, on the other hand, seem to feel secure when they are not being bombed or shot at.
So, what kind of security does Secretary Wolfowitz have in mind? Considering that the leader of the most powerful nation on earth still needs a National Security advisor at his side, actually feeling secure seems to be about as ellusive as getting rid of terror.
There's a little video making the rounds; a compilation of how many ways George W. Bush was able to repeat "Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction," without making it sound redundant. The title of the video is "Remind Us;" an obvious allusion to the rationale for why people are still being killed in Iraq.
When one views "Remind Us" in tandem with the video from Booker Elementary School, where the President was hanging out with the children that morning, learning to read about a goat while the towers in New York were under attack, one wonders how different things might have turned out, if they had read him the story of the little boy who cried wolf.
And then one has to wonder if what little boys who cry wolf really want is to keep the night terrors away and what they really need is just a little blanket to make them feel safe and secure. If so, then I sure hope it doesn't turn out that little Dubya's got "lost" in the wash!