The Terminal Patient

[I'll update this post with accurate quotes and links later.]

I was just listening to All Things Considered on NPR. They were talking about Rumsfeld leaving, along with members of his staff, and the job ahead for the next guy, whose name escapes me.

One interviewee said that "the next guy" dealing with Iraq is like a doctor, and Iraq is a patient. Iraq The Patient is in his 60s and has smoked and drank for many years, and now has lung cancer and heart cancer and says to the doctor, "Help me, do something," when in fact there isn't much any doctor could do in that case.

I'd previously blithely referred to Iraq as "spilled milk" (claiming that once the milk is spilled, who did it and why doesn't matter much and there aren't too many ways of cleaning it up, so differing views on Iraq couldn't actually be that different). I like this guy's assessment too, (the way he phrased it, anyway) and wanted to share it.

I just hope that this doctor can at least make the patient more comfortable while we search for a miracle cure.

Oh, the poor Iraqis... Can you imagine describing the USA as a terminal patient?