Ready for Almost Everything

We’re going to war in Iraq again soon.

Wait a little longer, and we’d have more forces in the region. But they’ll arrive soon enough — Baghdad might not fall for quite some time. How long? Who knows.

Wait a little longer, and maybe Saddam will pack up and go. But he never has, and every moment’s delay gives him more time to prepare the havoc he intends to bring down on his own nation.

Wait a little longer, and maybe a few more allies will come on board. But they won’t be able to fight alongside us or the Brits or the Aussies — they mean well, but their forces just don’t measure up.

Wait a little longer, and maybe we can soothe the Belgians, convince the French, get a new German government, and bribe the Russians. But we’d just be rewarding their hostility to us.

Wait a little longer, and maybe there will be a coup in Baghdad. But Saddam has been surviving those for longer than some readers here have been alive.

Wait a little longer, and maybe this entire goddamn mess will just go away somehow. But it won’t, and wishful thinking like that is part of what got us here.

The time is near, the time has come, the time is now. We