ECLIPSE CONDITIONS? Andrew Sullivan has a few questions about National Command Authority's planning for the reconstruction of Iraq. Good questions, not easily dismissed. Sometimes, even the predictable contingencies don't work out exactly as anticipated. Case in point: Allied troops held as war prisoners by Nazi Germany. The Protecting Power had a pretty good idea how many were there, and where they were, until the Germans started marching them around just before the end. Then it got messy. Just how messy is spelled out in The Last Escape (details or compare prices.) That's the latest piece of recreational reading, although it's sometimes grim going. (The reader will learn how close the Oflag at Colditz came to being busted up, how effective the U.S. artillery was at busting up castles by 1945, and that there was a Stalag XIII near Hammelburg.)