Fingers crossed
The early rearrangement of Iraq’s power structure will not mean anything in the long-run, but it might throw a spanner in the terrorists’ works in the short term. Tim Dunlop explains by analogy:
When I finished high school, all those years ago, there were certain of our number who had a plan or two for some end of year “celebrations” involving teachers’ cars, rolls and rolls of toilet paper, shaving cream, buckets of water and high windows, and the like. In fact, I’d never seen so many people at school so dedicated to the planning and execution of anything. On the second last day of school, with everybody brimming with anticipation, we were all called into an assembly and told we could go home. Yep. They finished the school year one day early without prior warning and thus completely sabotaged the planned, um, “hijinks.” It worked brilliantly.
So I wish the authorities in Iraq similar success with their attempt to shortcircuit the rather more deadly hijinks there by handing over “sovereignty” to the provisional Iraqi government a couple of days earlier than expected. Anything that puts a dint in the plans of car bombers and armed insurgents has to be a good thing. It probably won’t stop a single attack, but it does give a slight psychological edge to the provisional government that shouldn’t be discounted.
I suppose at this stage, we should all pray to whoever it is we pray. Or cross our fingers, or something.
