Bizarre war

AS THE Iraq war proceeds through its 29th month, there are aspects of it that are so bad that they provoke moments of dark humor, which sometimes ward off the tears of the ongoing tragedy.

Last week during a major sandstorm in Baghdad, Shiite militiamen from the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq went to the offices of the mayor of Baghdad, Alaa al-Tamimi, and replaced him with one of their own people, Hussein al-Tahaan. No muss, no fuss, no elections, nobody got killed, but Baghdad now has a new mayor in place of the one the United States put in place last year.

Now brace yourself for another item. Gasoline costs a lot less in Baghdad than it does in the United States. The current average U.S. price per gallon is around $2.52; in Baghdad it's 8 cents a gallon. This astonishing price is not a result of Iraq's producing oil; it's because the United States subsidizes the price of gas in Iraq, most of which is imported.

Why? First, because Iraqis have always had cheap, subsidized gas; even the fearsome Saddam Hussein regime didn't want to take that one on. Second, a more logical argument is that cheap gas in principle encourages economic development, which the United States wants to see occur in Iraq.

Cheap gas also encourages the smuggling of gas into neighboring countries such as Turkey, where the price is much higher. Never mind whether cheaper gas might not be good for the American economy.

The current drama in the unfortunate Iraq saga is the question of when the contesting groups will complete the draft constitution.

It was due last Monday; it is now due next Monday. The week's postponement wouldn't matter that much if the issues remaining to be resolved were not so serious.

They include federalism and the degree of autonomy that the Kurd, Shiite, and Sunni-majority parts of the country will have. They include the division of Iraq's oil receipts, comparable to determining the split in passing out Pittsburgh's future casino and slot earnings.

Another is the degree to which future, constitutional Iraq will be an Islamic state, in contrast to the secular state that Iraq was under Saddam.

And the killing continues.

U.S. deaths there now stand at 1,858. In Baghdad suicide car bombers carried out a particularly vicious series of attacks the other day, two at a bus station, then a third at the hospital to which the bus-station victims had been taken. Dozens of Iraqis died.

Meanwhile millions of Americans wonder why this war continues and if anybody in charge has an idea when it will end.

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