Consider the following analyses:
Philip Carter is rightfully disgusted at how our National Guardsmen in Iraq are still coping with inadequate supplies and training:
Our nation has sent its reservists into harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we have not done a good job of preparing them for the hazards there. It took us more than a year to field up-to-date Interceptor body armor to the force. Many of our Guardsmen still shoot, move and communicate with gear that's older than they are. They make do with inadequate pre-deployment training, because the Pentagon continues to delude itself that 39 training days a year is enough to sustain individual and collective proficiency at warfighting. (It's not!) And yet, when our Guardsmen go downrange, they fight the same fight as their active-duty brethren-- just with less resources, older equipment, and older soldiers (on the average).
The implications of such data should be spelled out very clearly: American lives have been lost due to unrealistic postwar planning and inadequate body-armor outfitting. Whatever silver linings that had surrounded the epic blunder in Iraq are now totally obscured.
Kos echoes Scott Ritter's prescient assessment from last year:
"We've lost this war."
Michael ably summarizes the cockamamie attempt to defund Iraqi infrastructure projects so that Bush can avoid a pre-election request for more money. Just one in a continuing pattern of accounting shenanigans...
Even nasty Ivan must cast a jealous "eye" on the damage and cost which the current administration inflicts on this country (not to mention others).
How much longer will the squalls of BushCo reign?
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Update:
TBogg puts blogging in its place-- hilariously, of course:
Blogging is just a cyberspace letter to the editor, instant venting, and little else. It's not "new media" (which sounds like hubris reflux from the dot.com days Fast Company, anyone?). Just like Penthouse Forum was a collection of phony stroke stories designed to give teenagers hope and older white men false memories, blogs are like newspapers made up entirely of op-eds for the likeminded. Critical thinking is rarely the price of admission, and, speaking of admission, how many blogs would you pay to read?
And don't miss Norbizness on dildoes and Matt Gunn on bullets.