SURGING HOPE

I’ve been watching the television for a couple of hours now and I can’t stop watching. Why? Because something incredible is beginning to look possible. The fact that, as I write this, we are being told that Saddam was in the bunker when it was hit; we have seen no credible video of him since; large numbers of the Iraqi military may be surrendering en masse; the command and control system within the Iraqi military structure seems to have broken down; and there seems to be no meaningful military opposition at all so far – suggests something beyond believable. Have we destroyed this regime with one strike? We cannot now know. Maybe I’ll be proven horribly wrong and this is a defensive ploy. Maybe things will get much worse. But there’s something strange about this beginning. It’s not “shock and awe.” It’s one strike, and then tentative, quiet ground advance. And almost nothing from the other side. Did the threat of “shock and awe” lead to a senior defection, and surrender from the near-top? Is that why this is going eerily well? Who gave the White House the intelligence about Saddam’s whereabouts? And is he reliable? Perhaps that’s why the war is going so gingerly so far. Let’s just say: I’m amazed that this dream scenario is even conceivable. Was Saddam brutally betrayed? And did the White House know in advance? Right now, in the early morning hours, all this is beginning to seem at least within the bounds of possibility. Or have I lost it and this is just crazy optimism? See you when I wake up.