creative destruction

i'm watching lehrer - and i thought i heard something that i couldnt possibly have heard, and it passed without comment - so i looked it up.

here's Borger in the Guardian:

Iraq a 'work of art in progress' says US general after 49 die
Julian Borger in Washington
Friday November 3, 2006
The Guardian

An American general in Baghdad called Iraq a "work of art" in progress yesterday in one of the most extraordinary attempts by the US military leadership to put a positive spin on the worsening violence.

On a day in which 49 people were killed or found dead around the country, Major General William Caldwell, the chief military spokesman, argued that Iraq was in transition, a process that was "not always a pleasant thing to watch.

"Every great work of art goes through messy phases while it is in transition. A lump of clay can become a sculpture. Blobs of paint become paintings which inspire," Maj Gen Caldwell told journalists in Baghdad's fortified green zone.

mmmmm - sexy - i'm thinking demi moore and patrick swayze

"The final test of our efforts will not be the isolated incidents that you report daily, but the country that the Iraqis build." Perceptions of how the war is going have become a central factor in next Tuesday's congressional elections, which could determine President George Bush's freedom of manoeuvre in his last two years in office.

it's true that the media only reports 'isolated incidents' - the problem is that the isolated incidents only comprise 5% of the daily carnage. i wish someone at the stupid fucking pentagon would leak a 'schools painted today' graphic. i bet they have one.

Maj Gen Caldwell described friction between the Baghdad government and Washington as "misunderstandings". He said that the death toll in the conflict had dropped by nearly a quarter in the past week, but conceded that October as a whole had been worse than earlier months.