A Pilgrim’s Digression

The New York Times is reporting that during the fighting in the night for the Republican Guard Palace in Baghdad, suicide bombers threw themselves against tanks. That must have been absolutely gruesome and chilling. It served no practical purpose, of course, though I suppose the real goal of the bombers was simply to martyr themselves.

I find it fascinating how throughout this war the media has kept up a din of negativism about how swiftly we are moving. Just last week the media was reporting that the Army would stop once it reached the outskirts of Baghdad and wait for reinforcements that would come in mid-April. There has been no pause. The stories I am reading in the Times and Post this morning convey a sense that the city is being systematically demolished. Civilian casualties are high, as are military casualties on the Iraqi side. I felt sickened by an article in the Washington Post reporting on the conditions in the hospitals. Yet this is the way it had to be. Grant and Sherman would have approved. The bloodier and more terrible a war, the quicker it is over. I’m glad the military didn’t pause; they have to finish this now. This war will be over soon, I think.