Brian Baird has not denied that his recent visit to Iraq was a controlled dog-and-pony show. Other representatives also recently returned and openly complained about manipulated infomercials passing as the facts on the ground. So, too, a few courageous troops. (Try Googling “Alex Horton, Army of Dude.”)

U.S. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., also has been to Iraq more times (four) than Baird. This time upon her return Tauscher declared, “… when you get in the Green Zone, there is a physiological phenomenon I think called Green Zone fog… It’s death by Powerpoint. It’s always that their argument is winning.”

The bigger point is that any process in Iraq is not merely American “Custers” chasing “insurgent” Sioux around and around. Maj. Gen. Batiste says that the process includes a four-legged stool of diplomacy, political reconciliation, economic recovery and the military.

Baird’s version of the pottery-barn theory doesn’t seem to understand that the military leg has been way overdone.

We broke it. We fix it – all four legs. We stop hitting Iraq and breaking things with our military hammer. We’ve over-used the hammer.

A few wise politicians know this. They’re not the ones currently talking like Brian Baird.

Arthur Ruger

Bay Center