You might have thought that now isn’t the most opportune time for the elected
leaders of both the United States and Iraq to pack up and head to the beach, ranch
or villa for a nice long vacation. Silly you.
You probably reasoned that with 162,000 U.S. troops sweltering in the war zone, with
the Iraqi government fracturing along sectarian lines and with what is billed as a
make-or-break report from Gen. Petraeus, due next month, maybe tradition ought to be ignored and the summer heat withstood just this once. You doubtless pointed out that no matter how uncomfortable triple-digit temperatures might be for the grandees of Washington and Baghdad, soldiers burdened with body armor and combat boots — and the constant threat of getting shot or blown up — have it a bit worse.
You were right, of course — it’s unbelievable that the Iraqi parliament is taking a
month-long vacation, that Congress has left for its traditional August recess and
that Bush is beating off in Kennebunkport and then in Texas. None of this really
matters because the war in Iraq is on autopilot.