In Other News

THE SURGE, as described by Gen. Petraeus, has worked so well at suppressing violence in Bagdhad that the civilian overlords administering Iraq are now banned from leaving their fortress, known as the Green Zone. This even though it appears that the bastion of the Green Zone has been built with such poor materials that it's battlements won't withstand even the modest explosive power of the handmade weapons (and the U.S. supplied weapons that have been sold to the insurgents) being used to attack it. Meanwhile, the civilian guard corps known as Blackwater has been banned from operating in the country by the increasingly truculent puppets of the Iraqi government, allegedly for shooting several civilians. This has come as a shock to the U.S. State Department and the DOD, seeing as how Blackwater has been shooting civilians (aka Ragheads) for years now. It's come to be regarded as one of the perks of employment at Blackwater; you can kill and get away with it. Protected by the "Status of Forces Agreement" negotiated between the U.S. State Department and, umm, well, Sate Department employee L. Paul Bremer III, the Supremo-In-Charge of promulgating the laws of the Free and Democratic Nation of Iraq immediately after the occupation commenced.
A new Modest Proposal. It's a given that the soon-to-be unemployed Blackwater soldiers will be hired by Blackwater's replacement, and the Green Zone will have to be renamed in acknowledgement of the fact that nothing green remains in Bagdhad - how about replacing Blackwater with Greenwater, and the Green Zone with the Black Zone, thus saving a lot of money on new letters. Simply swap colors! Nobody will be fooled except George W. Bush and Condi Rice, but they're the ones that count, after all.
All in all, I think things are looking up, don't you?