] Inside the Bush administration policymaking apparatus,
] there is strong feeling that U.S. troops must leave Iraq
] next year. This determination is not predicated on
] success in implanting Iraqi democracy and internal
] stability. Rather, the officials are saying: Ready or
] not, here we go.

If we walk out and leave the place for dead we'll produce another Iran.
Will the U.N. help us now that we've made this mess? Can they do so effectively? Would the people in Iraq view them more legitimately as a security force? Do they have the strength to take the insurgents on when we don't?

[ Keep in mind, this is Robert Novak talking. Not someone I have a lot of faith in. That being said, I think this article cuts to the heart of what a lot of people are starting to realize, which is that the place is quite simply fucked. That the situation may be so far out of hand that anything resembling victory is not merely difficult, but completely impossible. That the scope of the mismanagement is so great that no UN support or new tactic or amount of money is gonna fix it.

I don't claim to be expert enough to make this determination, but i read enough to catch the thread of this argument from people who are experts. The comparisons to Vietnam are no longer tossed around frivolously by extremists, but by highly respected ex-generals. More, or different colored, boots on the ground may not be enough. Bush broke Iraq, and we may have to admit that it's beyond putting back together. No one likes that answer, but it's not implausible.

And I think turning into Iran isn't the worst case scenario even. -k]

Quick exit from Iraq is likely

] During the program, a rambling sermon by Swaggart who is
] trying to rehabilitate himself after an arrest for
] soliciting a prostitute, the televangelist turned to the
] subject of gay marriage.
]
] According to a transcript of the program, Swaggart said:
] "I'm trying to find the correct name for it ... this
] utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men
] marrying men. ... I've never seen a man in my life I
] wanted to marry. And I'm gonna be blunt and plain; if one
] ever looks at me like that, I'm gonna kill him and tell
] God he died."

[ Yeah, that's right... i remember the part in the bible where Jesus said "If another man shall look at you with lust, then you must kill him and when he is dead, tell God, that He may reward you."

Seriously, why is it that the most fucked up assholes get awat with pretending to be paragons of virtue? It's unbelievable. Disgusting. If I believed in Hell, I say people who commit atrocities, or proclaim atrocities, in the name of virtue and morality, get a very special corner of the place. -k]

Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart Threatens To Kill Gays

] Among the many people quoted in the Atlantic is Jeffrey
] Record, a professor of strategy at the Army War College,
] who summed up a good deal of the thinking in Washington
] now: "Are we better off in basic security than before we
] invaded Iraq? The answer is no. An unnecessary war has
] consumed American Army and other ground resources, to the
] point where we have nothing left in the cupboard for
] another contingency -- for instance, should the North
] Koreans decide that with the Americans completely
] absorbed in Iraq, now is the time to do something."

When the Army War College says one thing and the White House says the opposite, I think I'm going to have to go with the guys who have a clue. The Army.

Yahoo! News - WHAT IF WE HAD NOT GONE INTO IRAQ?

] A9 requires users to download a toolbar (which, in turn,
] requires the Windows version of Microsoft's Internet
] Explorer) to store and manage their Web surfing and
] searching history.

[ Thank you for excluding me from what sounds like a very cool set of enhancments.

For fucks sake why IE... -k]

Amazon's A9 Reaches Beyond Google's Basics (washingtonpost.com)

] Most confusing sign of the day: "If Jesus weren't a Jew,
] he'd be an American."

[ That's ostensibly a Bush supporter, at last saturday's BC'04 rally in Ohio.

Really, just wow, people are DUMB.

I think i've recieved enough proof that if there is a god, he's not vengeful, but calm and calculated. An angry, vengeful god would just be smiting fools left and right, all the time. -k]

Campaign Notebook - chillicothegazette.com

] COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Soldiers from a combat
] unit at Fort Carson say they have been told to re-enlist
] for three more years or be transferred to other units
] expected to deploy to Iraq, the Rocky Mountain News
] reported Thursday.
]
] Hundreds of soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team
] were presented with that message and a re-enlistment form
] in a series of assemblies last week, two soldiers who
] spoke on condition of anonymity told the newspaper.
]
] "They said if you refuse to re-enlist with the 3rd
] Brigade, we'll send you down to the 3rd Armored Cavalry
] Regiment, which is going to Iraq for a year, and you can
] stay with them, or we'll send you to Korea, or to Fort
] Riley (in Kansas) where they're going to Iraq," said one
] of the soldiers, a sergeant.
]
] The second soldier, an enlisted man, echoed that view:
] "They told us if we don't re-enlist, then we'd have to be
] reassigned. And where we're most needed is in units that
] are going back to Iraq in the next couple of months. So
] if you think you're getting out, you're not."
]
] The sergeant told the News the threat has outraged
] soldiers who are close to fulfilling their service
] obligation.

9news.com | News

] Deaf children thrown together in a school in Nicaragua
] without any type of formal instruction invented their own
] sign language -- a sophisticated system that has evolved
] and grown, researchers reported on Friday.

[ It sucks that it took neglect to give rise, but the results are truly interesting... -k]

Deaf Kids in Nicaragua Give Birth to New Language

] 'Bring them on!" President Bush challenged the early
] Iraqi insurgency in July of last year. ... Almost
] every day, in campaign speeches, Bush speaks with
] bravado about how he is "winning" in Iraq. "Our strategy
] is succeeding," he boasted to the National Guard
] convention on Tuesday.
]
] But, according to the US military's leading strategists
] and prominent retired generals, Bush's war is already
] lost.

[ There's not even a single key quote to meme here. Every single paragraph is damning. Ret. Gen. Odom led the NSA, Ret. Gen. Hoare headed Cent. Com., Jeffrey Record and W. Andrew Terrill are professors of strategy at two US war collges.

These aren't armchair pundits like we are... they know a few things, and they bring up failures on a ton of fronts. Go read it. -k]

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Far graver than Vietnam

] As gloriously impenetrable as its title, and even more
] visually spectacular than its precursor, Mamoru Oshii's
] new anime - Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence - can
] be most simply described as an animated film noir
] populated by existential cyborgs.

Opens friday...

[ Yeah, I'm very much seeing this one. -k]

The Village Voice: Film: Anime Sequel Philosophizes Amid Shoot-Outs and Cyborgs by J. Hoberman

] The question lingers: Could the $144.4 billion spent on
] Iraq been better used to protect the American people from
] terrorist threats? The Center for American Progress
] offers this answer.

What follows is a long list of measures that would have made Americans safer. This is the true cost of the Iraq War.

The Opportunity Costs of the Iraq War - Center for American Progress