"Here today, raw nerves were obvious as officers compared Mr. Rumsfeld to Robert S. McNamara, an architect of the Vietnam War who failed to grasp the political and military realities of Vietnam." The penalty for not understanding history is being condemned to repeat it...
Comments 8:55:09 PM    

"If there is one Bin Laden now, there will be 100 afterwards" - Hosne Mubarak, President of Egypt, one of America's most supportive Arab allies.

Dow drops more than 150 points in fourth straight losing session (03-31) 13:54 PST NEW YORK (AP) -- Capping a dreary first quarter, Wall Street suffered another sharp drop Monday amid fears of prolonged fighting in Iraq...

How is it that a guy with the weakest mandate in the history of the U.S. presidency gets to screw the country up this much?
Comments 3:21:25 PM    

" ...Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his inner circle of civilian advisers, who had been chiefly responsible for persuading President Bush to lead the country into war, had insisted on micromanaging the war’s operational details. Rumsfeld’s team took over crucial aspects of the day-to-day logistical planning—traditionally, an area in which the uniformed military excels—and Rumsfeld repeatedly overruled the senior Pentagon planners on the Joint Staff, the operating arm of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “He thought he knew better,” one senior planner said. 'He was the decision-maker at every turn.'"

A lot of Vietnam-era observers are troubled by what we see in Iraq: if we're going to do this unholy thing then do it. This is no place or time to be cutting corners, or letting politicians plan and run military campaigns... just that practice cost tens of thousands of lives in Vietnam...
Comments 8:35:56 AM    

Arnett landed NBC/MSNBC an exclusive interview with Tariq Aziz: I'm guessing the Iraqi TV appearance was part of that deal. Journalists make all sorts of deals with all kinds of unsavory people: it's how they get information. There are no more free lunches in the media biz than there are anywhere else.

Whether Arnett went too far in that deal, it's hard to say: NBC did run the interview with Aziz (if they didn't like the deal, they shouldn't have used it). It seems they're dumping Arnett because they're being criticized for not 'supporting' the war. I don't think news organizations should support, or not support, the war: they should report the war honestly and unflinchingly. NBC and MSNBC, it should be noted, have both been interviewing journalists, which is a bad practice IMHO...
Comments 8:26:24 AM    

Chris Gulker's view from Silicon Valley - in words and pictures