Y'know, this mess in Fallujah is quite a pickle for everyone involved. Sure, the U.S. could have avoided a myriad of problems if the area had been paved early on. But that's water under the bridge, as they say.

An idea comes to me in light of recent developments:

Two Italian women aid workers were reported killed in Iraq and a British hostage pleaded for his life after the killing of two Americans, as the latest hostage crisis put pressure on governments with troops in Iraq.

An Islamist group in Iraq said it had killed the two female Italian hostages in a statement posted on an Internet site, but the women's employers in Italy said they had not given up hope.

The group, calling itself the Jihad Organisation, said in a statement on a site not often used by Iraqi militants that it had killed the women because Italy, a close U.S. ally, had not obeyed its call to withdraw its forces from Iraq.

The aid organisation Bridge to Baghdad which employed the two women said on its Web site that the report was "not very credible" and it had serious doubts about its veracity...

We're going to assume in the name of humanity that these women are still alive. But let's move on to some incontestable facts. There remains in the Fallujah area a nest of vipers. Bad guys. At the same time, with all of its historical treasures, Iraq is sort of a Johnny-come-lately in the archeological realm relative to what our British brethren have to offer.

Specifically, Iraq's got nothing as old or good as Stonehenge. So let's bomb them back to Stonehenge in Fallujah and get that ball rolling. The historical curator in me would love to see it. A clean geological slate in this part of the country might be one of the best gifts we could give them. How many daisy-cutters could it take? Certainly not that many.

It would be a small step toward rebuilding Iraq, and a giant leap toward saving American and coalition forces' lives in the area. You want to raise troop morale? Raze Fallujah. I'm betting a whole lot of problems will disappear if we do it.