This is beginning to sound like we're in a hole in Baghdad ... with this proposed trench ...

Then again, if it worked for the Chinese ...

I don't want to sound like an alarmist, but the idea that the Iraqis are planning to build a 60 mile trench around "the entire city of Baghdad" is a sign that things are going from worst ("bad" and "worse" were both passed months ago) to "Oh God!" It's not that it hasn't been tried before -- I found the reference to Adolfo Alsina's trench (in the desert) that failed miserably. [I just love that Wikipedia encyclopedia!] But just imagine a trench around a city that sits on (both sides of) the Tigris River!

I wonder what our military in Iraq (from the commanders to the grunts) must be thinking as word of this plan is now out in the newspapers worldwide and with additional news/rumors that some members of the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad have a secret "evacuation plan" for themselves and their families -- some staying almost exclusively in the "Green Zone" -- for when the city "falls." I was unable to find a "western" source while searching the web for confirmation of that particular rumor, and don't really know how to evaluate Arab or Middle Asian sources. Presumably, some Shiites would go to Iran, of all places ... and some would go to Syria, while Sunnis would head south to Saudi Arabia or the UAE. [Interestingly, not a single news article mentioned any of them coming to the US, but I would guess that that would be logical if things really went kavoom there. I would think that we would certainly try to help those who have helped us at great risk to themselves and their families. But the idea that some might come here is only me saying that; there was/is no backup source for the meanderings of my own diseased mind.]

On top of that, we are redeploying our troops from nearly everywhere in Iraq (but especially from Anbar Province) into ... you guessed it ... Baghdad. And oh yes,the construction of the Taj Mahal (previous posting, although you might have to archive "June 2006" postings to look at it, depending upon your blog settings) in Baghdad continues with only non-Iraq labor including many American contractors -- we can't trust the Iraqis to even carry the mortar or serve as tea boys to the workers -- and that's a fact!

We'll have half our friggin' uniformed Army and Marine Corps on the inside of this trench (filled with the Tigris River, I suppose) with nothing but the most expensive boon-doggle in US history to stare at. I guess they'll be safe inside the trench, but I keep thinking of New Orleans and Katrina for some reason.

Listening to Mr. Bush speaking in the Rose Garden press conference yesterday just as I was getting google alerts on all of this news ... and it was still processing in my weak brain, I wondered, "How appropriate ... his being in a rose garden." Did he read that Pentagon Report last week? Is he listening to what the generals on the ground are saying? He mentioned the trench ... he called it a "berm," as I recall ... so he's somewhat aware. Or is he?

I'm just waiting for my good friend, Abdullah Al-Faras, or one of my former Royal Saudi Air Force colleagues to call me from Saudi Arabia and ask me if I was in some way involved ... and then start laughing uproariously. They will. I just know it ...

I wonder if the contractors will finish the Starbucks in time. Twenty-two buildings is a tall order even for a billion dollars.