Time warp....

A photo on the cover of today's L.A. Times web-edition. (it's been pulled...) prompted a double or triple take this morning. From a low camera angle, it showed a mid-shot of a crowd of chanting, bearded Shiite men, each attired in what looked like homespun-cloth robes knotted at the waist with cord. Each man was drenched in blood, faces and clothing soaked red, from self-inflicted scimitar wounds. Several crescent-shaped blades were visible, held high above the crowd in bloodied hands.

The image could have been a scene from the Crusades--in the Middle Ages, that is, not our modern version.

Viola, the people G.W. has spent (officially, to date) $74.7 billion of our tax money to liberate. And now they want an Islamic theocracy.

I've been struck by the preponderance of males in the news photos snapped since the "liberation." Of all the Islamic countries in the Middle East, Iraq had one of the most open societies for women. I suspect that is going to change.