In focusing almost exclusively on my diet & exercise efforts this summer I've maintained a nearly total news fast. I might have done a news fast anyway seeing that the news hasn't changed much in the past 2-3 years but it seems appropriate to shift my attention today to world affairs.

And the news item that I can't get beyond is the report of the BBC/ABC poll of Iraqis who express "a great degree of dissatisfaction with the US 'surge', with a vast majority of respondents considering the move to have made the situation in the country worse rather than better."

There it is: the perfect, tailor-made, true-to-American-ideals justification for withdrawing U.S. ground troops, giving us the chance to withdraw on our own terms before circumstances make it impossible to do so. And circumstances are indeed a-changin'; on Friday, the oil futures markets closed a dollar-and-change away from the all-time record high price as the Dow Jones Industrial Index fell 250 points.

Me thinks a perfect ____-storm is about to hit the fan.