mesopotamia

Mesopotamia -- what a magical name! The land between the two rivers, the cradle of civilization, where Adam and Eve rode their pet dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden. The land in the middle down through the ages has been the envy of Kings, the treasure lusted after by impoverished nomad hordes, and the temptation of conquerers.

Trajan drove on deep into Mesopotamia, and took it in 116 CE. Acting as his own commanding general in the field as he always did, the aging conquerer lamented only that he was too old to follow in the Great Alexander's footsteps and power on through to India. Still, he sent a letter to the Senate back in Rome saying "Mission accomplished." But as he departed the Persian Gulf for Babylon trouble broke out in his rear, and his conquest of Mesopotamia was revealed as imperial overreach. With his health failing, the old emperor left the land between the two rivers and, shortly thereafter, the earth.

And now the Empire of the Pentagon is engaged in the painfully slow process of disengaging itself from that ancient land, the latest in a long, long list of disappointed conquerors. And as we depart, a full record of our deeds and misdeeds there is finally published for the world to see. Thanks to the latest Wikileaks documents dump, the history of this unnecessary conflict can now be written, even as the last chapters are playing out.

The released documents contain a lot of stuff the Pentagon didn't want us to know, but there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed.