I’ll forego commentary and just share this window into the war:
From Times of London

Maintaining morale among troops facing combat is one of the greatest responsibilities — and challenges — for military field commanders. A commentary by Ben MacIntyre in the Times of London this weekend quoted a battlefield speech given by Lt. Col. Tim Collins, a 42-year-old commander of the Royal Irish battle group. Just hours before his troops went into battle, Col. Collins said this:

“The enemy should be in no doubt that we are his Nemesis and that we are bringing about his rightful destruction. There are many regional commanders who have stains on their souls and they are stoking the fires of Hell for Saddam. As they die they will know their deeds have brought them to this place. Show them no pity. But those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send. As for the others, I expect you to rock their world.

“We go to liberate, not to conquer. We will not fly our flags in their country. We are entering Iraq to free a people, and the only flag that will be flown in that ancient land is their own. Don’t treat them as refugees, for they are in their own country.

“I know men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts. They live with the mark of Cain upon them. If someone surrenders to you, then remember they have that right in international law, and ensure that one day they go home to their family. The ones who wish to fight, well, we aim to please. If there are casualties of war, then remember, when they woke up and got dressed in the morning they did not plan to die this day. Allow them dignity in death. Bury them properly, and mark their graves.

“You will be shunned unless your conduct is of the highest, for your deeds will follow you down history. Iraq is steeped in history. It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood, and the birth of Abraham. Tread lightly there. You will have to go a long way to find a more decent, generous and upright people than the Iraqis. You will be embarrassed by their hospitality, even though they have nothing… “

And in conclusion, Lt. Col. Collins told his troops:

“There may be people among us who will not see the end of this campaign. We will put them in their sleeping bags and send them back. There will be no time for sorrow. Let’s leave Iraq a better place for us having been there. Our business now, is north.”

Feel free to leave comments below.

I’m drinking a cherry coke. I feel so dirty. After all, Coke is the drink of the death squads.

Anyway, granted, there are only about 7 of you who read this blog, but I’m curious if it messes it up when I switch back and forth between diary like entries about what is going on in my life and my various political commentary (which sooner or later may end up being joined by philosophical, religous, sociological, etc. posts as well). Feel free to comment here or email me (if you haven’t yet signed up for a FREE xanga account to start your own log or just to leave comments).

The thing is, that’s kind of how my life is. One day I’m just living it, and the next, I can’t stop thinking.

…

Well, everyone knows that during armed conflict, mistakes happen (which is why some of us are so adamant about only using armed conflict as a last resort).

Two pretty major wounds in the last few days:

The van that got shot up, killing seven Iraqi women and children has really ticked off a lot of the middle east. After the suicide bombing at a checkpoint, our troops have (understandably) been a lot more skittish.

Our military has stated that the soldiers followed proper procedure (signalled for a halt, fired warning shots, fired into the engine, and finally fired into the van). However, a journalist from the scene describes it somewhat differently.

A US military spokesman says the soldiers motioned the vehicle to stop but their signals were ignored. However, according to the Washington Post, Captain Ronny Johnson, who was in charge of the checkpoint, blamed his own troops for ignoring orders to fire a warning shot.

“You just fucking killed a family because you didn’t fire a warning shot soon enough!”, he reportedly yelled at them.

The second one was regarding the cruise missile that blew up in the Baghdad market last Friday. Our administration made a point of saying that it was unknown whether it was American or Iraqi. A British journalist at the scene found a metal fragment from the device with a cage code that traces it back to a plant in McKinney Texas owned by the Raytheon Company who makes various military equipment including the AGM-129 cruise missile. It was ours.

I’d like to believe that the expressed uncertainty over who had fired the missile was honest and was not a dis information/confusion tactic to keep the info “questionable” until it had blown over. I’d like to, but I don’t think I do.

Anyway, these (and other) civilian deaths are really starting to galvanize the Arab street against us which is going to make it much harder for us to “liberate” Iraq. Now, people from other nations are heading into Iraq to fight against the “coalition of the willing”.

(Side Note: in most places a “coalition of the willing” who ignores the law of the land to come together and dispense justice is called a Lynch Mob).

The information that we have started sending people for a Pentagon-controlled interim Iraqi government into Kuwait has not helped our cause either.

Britain had Northern Ireland. Israel and Palestine nearly define each other. Iraq may not be our next Viet Nam, but we may be the next on the list with a hostile protectorate.

…

How many soldiers is this war worth?

If we only lose a hundred, while tragic, that seems to be considered acceptable by the main stream.

If we lose one or two thousand, there is a pretty good chance that will end the Bush regime, but it may still be viewed as a hard but acceptable loss by the supporters of this conflict.

If, as in Viet Nam, we were to lose 50,000 I believe we would consider it “too costly” and possibly pull out if victory was not in sight.

In WWII, we lost a quarter of a million soldiers. While no one looks back and is happy that those people died, most agree that it was something we had to do. If we’d known the cost before we started, we may have hesitated a bit longer or gone in with different tactics, but I believe that we still would have fought that war.

So how many is this war worth? It probably depends on what you think the goal is and what you think the lives of our soldiers are worth.

Without arguing whether these reasons make sense, they are some of the reasons I’ve heard given:

Is it for oil? How many is that worth?
Is it to liberate the people of Iraq from a brutal and repressive dictator? How many is that worth?
Is it to fight the global war against terrorism? How many is that worth?
Is it to eliminate weapons of mass destruction? How many is that worth?
Is it to head off a potential future terrorist attack on the US? How many is that worth?
Is it to establish US dominance in the region, per the Project for a New American Century?

Those answers are probably different for each of us, but I doubt anyone would put it at a quarter million soldiers.

Now, I’m still pondering this thought, but if a war isn’t worth sacrificing everything, is it worth sacrificing anything?

Perhaps that should be our benchmark for a war. If and only if we are willing to lose an entire generation, then we are facing a war we that must fight. If it is not worth that, then we are probably shouldn’t be off wherever killing people.

I’m not sure. What do you think?

…

Time for band practice. We’ve got two shows this month. One at the lab (21+) in Saint Paul on the 24th and one at a Jaycees lodge in Shakopee on the 25th.