Boiling the Frog

It is said that the way to boil a frog is to increase the heat slowly. If the temperature rises too fast, the frog will jump out of the pot. But, if the temperature is increased slowly, the frog will just sit there until he's the main ingredient in a froggy stew. That seems to be the case with our frog, Saddam Hussein's Iraq. We bomb his air defense radars and other targets are hit as well. Some sources have us hitting fiber optic lines and logistical sites. The Turkish army is slowly occupying Northern Iraq, a little more each day.

Turkish newspapers report that between 10,000 and 15,000 troops have been deployed along the frontier and units have crossed into northern Iraq, although the military command denies there has been a major military buildup... ?But there are more soldiers posted on the hilltops around the town and we hear of trucks full of soldiers crossing the border in the past few nights.?

Debka.com has some similar observations. Our buildup of troops continues daily, with little announcements of a few thousand troops here, a command battallion there, and about half of our Navy seems to be deploying to the region, one ship at a time.

Meanwhile, our frog plays footsie with the UN inspectors and the diplomatic community, wondering where the little whisps of steam and tiny little bubbles are coming from. You'd think that Saddam might start making plans to move in next door to Idi Amin, a fellow traveller in the Outrageous Despots club, "in an exclusive community outside Jiddah, the capital" of Saudi Arabia. But his buddy Idi needed to be overthrown first. So we wait for the water to boil.