Arabian Nights - Tonight

[HARDCORE]

?ALI BABA? - A poor woodcutter who gained access to the cave of the ?Forty Thieves? through the use of a magical incantation - ?Open Sesame!?

?Oh how times have changed, even if human nature has not!? As one of mankind?s biggest flaws is still a lust for the other guy?s goods! (Humphrey Bogart, Treasure of Sierra Madre)

The 'Biblical Able' engaged in this sin, the bandits of Sherwood were also guilty of this travesty, many within the Wild West (especially after the American Civil War) practiced the arts of the highwayman, and hell, even many a self-respecting businessmen and politicos dip their fingers where they don?t belong, and some get away with it too!?

In this respect, some things never seem to change, and in war, the ?Art of Forceful Liberation? is often carried a step further. ?Hell, some even engage in brigandage!?

And for the record, this blistering fervor is exactly what just took place in Iraq, by Iraqis! ?To believe otherwise is pure fantasy!!?

?So where in the hell does our ancient friend Ali Baba fit in?? Well even today, early within the Twenty First Century, the practice of ?Rip & Run? is alive and well, and were it not for laws and punishment, pure anarchy would rule the roost (opinion)!

Granted, there are many, many people who would not even dream of grabbing-up that which does not belong to them! Hunger and circumstance (as in Les Miserables, Iraqi-Style), however, could even tempt a saint, and the last time that I looked, the Middle East had no great abundance of halos!?

So here we are in the deserts of time, space and mind (War), and an oppressed people of some three decades are suddenly set free in the candy stores of life. Mass insanity of a kind has gripped many by the throats, and like a feeding school of sharks, if it moves you eat it, and if it don?t move, you eat it anyway!

Of course, our military?s priorities and attentions are directed elsewhere, as survival is far more pressing on a battleground than a few baubles or trinkets, even expensive ones! When, however, this rampage of insanity presses it?s tentacles into ancient museums or hospitals, then one?s concern has to heighten!

And when armed robbery of one?s saviors, or stealing from those recording the event for posterity, becomes the order of the day, then it is definitely breaking time!

Our military knows better than most, the nature of mankind and the beast! And this, when added to years of national deprivation, makes for a volatile brew!

I could also see from the look on the faces of some within the Coalition Forces (decent kids, one and all), that the madness and theft that was taking place upon the streets of Baghdad and elsewhere, was troubling to them! But then the order of the day was: ?Let it burn itself out, was it not?!"

Well, sometimes this sort of thing can burn forever, or at the least - re-ignite! As such, police units are quickly being slipped into place in country. Of course, there will always be those (the lawless) who will view this incursion of justice as an invasion of their rights to engage in mayhem. As a matter of fact, it would not surprise me at all, if some of those doing the looting, were actually the bad guys themselves, "Minus The Shitty Iraqi and Republican Army Uniforms!

?Oh how quickly cowards melt into a crowd!? And anyone (native, newsman and even isolated military) who wanders out onto yon badlands alone, may be in for huge trouble. For unfortunately, there is a little bit of ?Ali Baba? in a lot of men and women, and much more of the thief in those who have been violently thrust outside the parameters of the laws of humanity!

VERITAS