Upon Prolepsis

We're back, friends, with a mouth full of Havana Club and a raft of spiritual infections antibioticized by the good, friendly people of Canada. Thanks to Phredward for buttering the nuts whilst we were otherwise, &c. Don't you fuss or fret, as we just suspect he'll be making a return appearance.

Anyway, we were pleased to see that the BBC just ran a fine story entitled "How Predictions for Iraq Came True." No, not the PNAC predictions about how Baghdad would look just like Providence, RI with a few short weeks of bombs, flags, and good ol' American know-how... Rather, those rather more troubling predictions lobbed by the Satan First crowd.

We've contacted the BBC, instructing them that they perhaps inadvertently omitted the thoughts of one guy who predicted that this would be a fucking disaster:

I asked my guide to ask about the plebiscite. The old man laughed. Oh yes, they had given out papers in the bazaars, but they were already printed with the vote for the mandate, so that the ignorant should vote for the government without knowing it.

The Americai must tell his countrymen that the people of Iraq would continue to struggle for their freedom and for the principles announced by Sheikh Washiton and Meester Veelson. The last revolt had failed because it had been ill prepared. Next time . . . His voice rose ever so slightly.

John Dos Passos, "Baghdad Bahnhof" 1921

Okay, so perhaps it's a slight stretch to characterize the current spate of torture-executions, car bombs, and general descent into violent factional chaos as a struggle for Wilsonian New Freedom. Then again, it was kind of a stretch to characterize WWI that way.

Vaguely related nota bene: treat yourself to a brief history of the car bomb, aka "The Poor Man's Air Force" by Mike Davis.