USISEROS TIE UP TRAFFIC: It’s getting difficult driving through the North Luzon Expressway with the earnest start of work to widen, rehabilitate and modernize that main artery from Balintawak to Central Luzon.

Motorists themselves can contribute much to easing the flow of traffic by resisting the urge to kibitz. Motorists slow down and crane their necks when they spot the heavy equipment and the work crew.

Sometimes drivers ogling the work gangs and not keeping their eyes on the road end up grazing other vehicles. They tie up traffic when they stop and argue with the other driver, et cetera.

Most idle Filipinos look for entertainment or something to watch to spice up their humdrum existence. This habit is carried over to the street and elsewhere.

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IS U.N. IRRELEVANT?: If President George W. Bush will invade Iraq anyway — with or without the concurrence of the United Nations — what’s the point of debating and campaigning for support in the UN Security Council?

For that matter, if the US will just slap the UN aside on its way to attacking Baghdad, why not dissolve the world body for having grown irrelevant? Never mind if it was America and other supposedly peace-loving nations that organized it at the conclusion of the last world war.

March 17 is being mentioned as the US-UK deadline for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to surrender all his supposed weapons of mass destruction, otherwise he would be blown to kingdom come.

If the bone of contention is the cache of deadly weapons, let’s all go for it! Let all UN member-nations, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, list and dismantle all their WMD.

The disarm sauce for Saddam’s goose should be the same sauce for the gander of the US, Israel, North Korea and the rest of the WMD Gang.

Why must the US insist on Iraq’s giving up its WMD while the same demand is not being made on its client Israel, or upon the US itself?

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R.P. READY FOR WAR: The government says the country is ready for the shock waves of war. It claims that we have enough food, fuel, funds, etc. to tide us over while the US and its pardner, Great Britain, wallops Iraq to submission.

On the government buffer list are rice that could last us 95 days, sugar for 120 days, crude oil that will not run out in 70 days, and some P7.5 billion for changing to pesos the Middle Eastern currency of affected Filipinos in the war zone.

That guarantee is news to us. How come suddenly we have enough of everything? Whose magic wand was it that made these essential items appear in great abundance? If only for that feat, we should beg her to stay beyond 2004, di po ba?

Now if only they could transform those glowing statistics into real commodities in the hands of harassed Filipinos. If only they could make the US war machine confine the mass destruction to Baghdad and finish the mopping up in not more than 30 days.

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COMPLICATING THE WAR: With many factors beyond the control of the invading US-UK forces, we cannot have iron-clad assurance that the war will be confined to Baghdad or wherever Saddam’s hiding place is pinpointed by the allied intelligence.

The US has to get the Iraqi strongman in the first salvo to be able to limit the area and the duration of the attack. If he escapes the first rain of high-tech bombs, Saddam would become another Osama bin Laden directing countermoves from underground.

That would prolong the war, and may even widen the area of conflict.

Saddam could try complicating the war by not confining his defense to repulsing the attack but by opening new fields of conflict. He could, for instance, work out a major attack on Israel and force a number of Arab fence sitters to align with him.

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STAB U.S. HEARTLAND: Or, heaven forbid, while some 300,000 of America’s best fighters, backed by a massive modern war machine, are massed just across the fence from Iraq, Saddam and his cohorts might hit back with terrorist attacks in the heartland of America.

Even now, there are reports that some home-grown terrorists with foreign links are already in place near pre-selected US targets.

We don’t mean to scare you with these possible variations of possible counter-strike, assuming Saddam will be able to hit back. While he has many options, his capability is not as extensive as that of the US. Besides, if the US gets him with the first shot, it will be over very quickly.

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FOCUS — PINOY WORKERS: The focus of Philippine concern in the Mideast is not really Saddam but the safety and job security of Filipino workers in Iraq and nearby countries.

Officials who have gone to Iraq and other places in the expected war zone have come back with reports that most Filipinos there are not that keen about evacuating or returning to the Philippines.

While only 10 percent of some 1.4 million workers initially expressed willingness to move out, the task force that was sent there has reported that the actual number joining an evacuation may be much less than that.

Ever the survivor in the harshest of conditions, the Filipino feels he is as capable as the next man in looking after himself. Hard worker that he his, the Filipino will leave his job site only under extreme threat to his life.

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FEAR OF LOSING JOB: Many Filipino workers are also worried that they may not be able to go back to their jobs if they run away at the first sign of war. Some Mideast employers are reportedly sensitive about being abandoned when the going gets rough.

The workers are aware that if they go back to the Philippines, no employment awaits them. The government has assured them help in finding jobs, but even if they are lucky to get priority placement, the pay may not be as substantial.

Talking of pay, workers have told the task force sent by the government to look after them that in case of war they would even receive hazard pay. They won’t refuse that bonus, which is in effect an incentive to stay.

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BUSH THE ENEMY?: It is amazing that despite the massive resources of the US government and the presumed superiority of its propagandists, President Bush appears by most account to be losing in the battle for world opinion.

While the conflict started with Saddam pictured as villain by the western press, it seems that Bush is now emerging in unsavory light. How come millions all over the globe acting and reacting independently of one another seem to arrive at the same negative conclusions about Bush and his war?

A mass error of judgment is unlikely. There must be something basically objectionable both in Bush’s avowed goal and/or the means he is employing.