Iraq is like a restaurant . . .

In Anthony Bordain's funny, insider send-up of the restaurant industry and his own career, Kitchen Confidential, he makes the point--self-evident when you think about it--that once a new joint begins to fail, it almost inevitably fails. In between, there's usually an excruciating period of concept changes, staff swap-outs, misbegotten special offers, over-comping of drinks and dinners, pleas to the press for new and better reviews, etc. The cute Parisian bistro becomes a Roman trattoria, becomes a pan-Mediterranean café, becomes an Asian-infused New American throwback. Flare-out. Sale sign.

This, in turn, seems more or less the model for our current "strategy" in Iraq, as evidenced in this NY Times story on the Army's new counterinsurgency training in mock Iraqi villages out in the Mojave Desert. It's probably admirable in some cosmically unimportant way that Chef Rumsfeld is willing to jettison all those heavy sauces for grilling and seasonal cuisine, but as regards our enterprise in the Middle East, I regret to say that our falafel, so to speak, appears to be well and fully fried.