Okay, no new links today, just some commentary.

Can the defense department just come clean with us? I have heard nothing but this back and forth action. We underestimated them. We didn't underestimate them. We under... I'd say it's pretty obvious that we're run into some unexpected shit. The Turks, Syria, guerilla warfare. And you know what? That's not so bad, for war, at least.

Okay, it really does seem like they should have been able to predict some of this shit. But why can't they just cop to it? No, we're not getting our clean, quick war, but it's coming along. Why can't they just say, some things are going bad, others are going well? Partially because the public is too fucking weak to handle anything too serious. Oh, and it's a bunch of lying assholes at the helm. By lying assholes, I don't just mean in the normal politician sense, I mean in the sense of getting us involved in unnecessary, troublesome wars under the guise that we're 'liberators'.

The thing is, they can't even keep their opinions consistent. Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense and a key architect of this war, said that they may have underestimated the war crimes that the Iraqis would be willing to commit. This one I'm just plain going to blame them for. First of all, how could Iraq not resort to tactics like this? Up against an intractable enemy with no hope of victory, we should have known they were going to have to go to some extremes. I'm not saying what they're doing is good, but I understand. Also, the administration has done nothing but vilify (in most if not all cases, rightly so) Saddam's administration. From what we've heard, this shit is par for the course. Why does it come as a surprise?

Here's a good one - Bush is getting fed up with the press and their second guessing of the war. There's still a definite propagandist slant in the media, but since the war has started, they've actually been asking some tough questions. Naturally, this doesn't sit well with the Administration, who has pretty much gotten a free ride from the press up until now. You know what, Mr. Bush? You got your war, you spoiled crybaby fuck. Now shut the hell up and take a little bit of grief.

Speaking of the media, I've found a newscast I like. It's the CBC's nightly news program, The National. Yup, I'm giving a shoutout to my Canuck brothers up north. Anyway, I've seen this a couple of times this week at 7 PM MST on CSPAN.

In closing, I still hope this war goes well. Now that we're in there, we don't have any choice but to finish it. I'm just not too optimistic about the future. I see the footage of destraught citizens in Baghdad who just lost loved ones in a market explosion. The Defense Department says it's under investigation; maybe the Iraqi military dropped the bomb themselves. I don't think it really matters; we know who those Iraqi citizens will blame. And all I can think is, oh my god, are these people going to fucking hate us.