During the German occupation of my homeland in the Second World War there were nightly shouts of “Vasta Rommel” by certain Greeks. “Vasta” in Greek means “Hold on.” In other words, Greeks were praying for the great Erwin Rommel to hold against Montgomery’s 8th army. The German officers who were billeted in our house were immensely flattered. Until, that is, Fraulein, my German nanny, informed them that those shouting “Vasta Rommel!” were black marketeers hoping for an Axis victory because that ensured bigger profits. War disrupts economic activity so black marketeers thrive. We lived in Kolonaki, next to the then closed British embassy, and one night Hauptmann Murgen—a civilized and very good-looking officer who was later killed on the Russian front—waited in our garden and arrested couple of black marketeers who were shouting pro-German slogans.

These long ago events came to mind while reading (for laughs) John (4 pizzas) Podhoretz’s diatribe against the eleven Republicans who warned Bush that their patience with the war is exhausted. Four Pizzas reminds me of the black marketeers. He and the rest of the neo-cons are essentially shouting “Vasta Bin Laden!” The more bloodshed, chaos and disruption, the more it gives Israel the excuse to practice ethnic cleansing. The more the military-industrial complex thrives. The greater the hold of the neo-con influence within the White House. So, while our soldiers die and are maimed, and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis die like sheep—or swell the crowd of two million refugees—slobs like Frum, Kristol, Podhoretz, Perle and others of their ilk continue to bray for war and more bloodshed. The next time you hear “Vasta Bin Laden,” it’s probably Four Pizzas praying that the present crisis continues. No skin off his fat arse, as they say. No neo-con or their fathers or grandfathers has ever served in any military capacity except to undermine the United States of America.