People who know me might imagine that I would be pleased at the criticism of Rumsfeld, since much of it has been criticism that I have had about the war, a war that I thought was too risky in the first place. In fact I think Rumsfeld is probably right about many things that he will ultimately carry the can.

Of all the hawks, Rumsfeld is the only one I have any time for - he has the personality that the spin doctors try to give Bush - he is a straight talker who does not like bureaucratic bullshit or state run inefficiency. His approach to the military is like a CEO from the private sector coming in to run an anachronistic public utility.

The war is clearly not going according to plan, and because Rumsfeld went against the advice of some of the military the responsibility rests with him and the alternatives will now come from the generals.

So what are the generals saying exactly? They are saying that they need more troops and more artillery and they need to shore up the supply lines. This is all absolutely correct, but what if the supply line hadn’t been a line in the first place. Light infantry can be supported from the air. We are seeing an enemy that has become decentralized in such a way that conventional military tactics won’t work, and yet the military response is to shore up a conventional approach.

But what do I know - nothing, except that the military is by its very nature conservative. What we are faced with in Iraq is an enemy that has a different way of fighting and it will take people who challenge the orthodoxy to adapt a response.

In the First World War thousands of British troops died because general Haig said the machine gun was ‘a vastly overrated weapon’, refused to use it and instead increased the amount of conventional charges against the Germans who were using their versions of this weapon to devastating advantage.

Rumsfeld favored a ‘lightweight’ approach to battle and this was successful in Afghanistan, I have a nagging feeling that the real problem with Iraq is that the plan is actually not Rumsfeldian enough.

Now I may be wrong, but MSNBC seems on the defensive about the Internet now. An Internet pundit has been dragged up to say that the problem with the news on the Internet is that it is untrustworthy. Pretty Ironic considering that the MS in NBC stands for Microsoft.

Well, does that include MSNBC’s own site or any of the other 2500 newspapers online? No this is a jibe at other news sources.

I wonder if the cable networks will start to get irritated by the limelight that will increasingly fall on decentralized news coverage on the web, stranger things have happened.

On MSNBC (Moronic Simplistic News Befitting Cretins?) at the moment they are on a witchhunt, referring to ‘embedded liberal’ Geraldo Rivera, no mention of Arnett of course. Shocked faces as quotes from Edward Said are read out and outrage expressed by Michael ‘Savage’.

Michael is founder of the Paul Revere society. Here is their 9 point charter (comments in parens):

1. Make tax cuts permanent. (This would require permanent GOP government - so scrap democracy?).

2. Close the borders now.
3. Deport all illegal immigrants now.
4. Eliminate bilingual education in all states.
5. Require health tests for all recent foreign born immigrants.
(get rid of ‘foreigners’ they are unpure?)

6. Eliminate as many entitlement programs as possible.
(cleanse the country of poor people?)

Up to here, standard neo-fascist stuff, but this is where it gets weird (and why I will never really understand ultra-right libertarians)

7. Reduce the number of Federal Employees.
(what, like the army?)

8. Oil Drilling on U.S. Soil.
(so no need to go to war with Iraq then?)

9. Tort Reform “STOP LAWYERS”.
(and nobody to prosecute criminals?)

MichaelSavage.Com

“Our best estimate of the likely duration of the war (given the evolution of the war thus far, and assuming that the United States is able to maintain its maneuver-based strategy) is approximately 3

There is a nasty air of schadenfreude around the doomsayers just as there has been too much gung-ho jingoism by the optimists. Neither are healthy and the fact is that it is too early to judge the success of failure of the Iraq war. What is clear, however, is that everything hinges on an uprising.

The frighteningly erudite Joshua Marshall:

“Yesterday, The Washington Monthly released my new article on the Bush administration’s grand plan for reforming the entire Middle East. One assertion many found difficult to believe was my claim that the administration would soon seek to provoke wars with Syria and Iran. Today, Don Rumsfeld threatened both countries with just that.”

Practice to Deceive via Nick Denton

“Surely this is a bipartisan issue. While many on the antiwar side complain about the media’s alleged “pro-war bias,” those who support the war, and the Bush administration itself, have also been ill served by overly-positive coverage that now has millions of Americans reeling from diminished expectations. ”

“Here, then, is a list of stories that have been widely misreported or poorly reported so far:

1. Saddam may well have been killed in the first night’s surprise attack (March 20).

2. Even if he wasn’t killed, Iraqi command and control was no doubt “decapitated” (March 22).

3. Umm Qasr has been taken (March 22).

4. Most Iraqis soldiers will not fight for Saddam and instead are surrendering in droves (March 22).

5. Iraqi citizens are greeting Americans as liberators (March 22).

6. An entire division of 8,000 Iraqi soldiers surrendered en masse near Basra (March 23).

7. Several Scud missiles, banned weapons, have been launched against U.S. forces in Kuwait (March 23).

8. Saddam’s Fedayeen militia are few in number and do not pose a serious threat (March 23).

9. Basra has been taken (March 23).

10. Umm Qasr has been taken (March 23).

11. A captured chemical plant likely produced chemical weapons (March 23).

12. Nassiriya has been taken (March 23).

13. Umm Qasr has been taken (March 24).

14. The Iraqi government faces a “major rebellion” of anti-Saddam citizens in Basra (March 24).

15. A convoy of 1,000 Iraqi vehicles and Republican Guards are speeding south from Baghdad to engage U.S. (March 25).”

15 Stories They’ve Already Bungled

Slovenians hit the streets on Wednesday to protest their inclusion in the coalition of the willing.

“Small problem: The lovely Alpine nation isn’t a member. ‘When we asked for an explanation, the State Department told us we were named in the document by mistake,’ Prime Minister Anton Rop said at what Reuters called ‘a hastily arranged news conference.’”

They Got the ‘Slov’ Part Right (washingtonpost.com)

“Judicial Watch said it had filed complaints ‘for the unlawful proliferation of nuclear technology, the unlawful trafficking of arms and military technology, and the violation of UN trade sanctions imposed after the 1991 Gulf War, as well as additional UN sanctions relating to the so-called ‘oil-for-food’ program’.”

Herald Sun: Interpol urged to probe Chirac [29mar03]

“From official announcements to coverage in state-controlled media to cooperation with other countries’ health experts, government responses to the flu-like disease that struck southern China have been sluggish and at times nonexistent.”

While there are reports of how communication via the Internet and increased preparedness for bio-terrorism have been of crucial importance in dealing with SARS, China has hidden figures and information that could have catastrophic consequences.

The case of SARS illustrates perfectly the need for greater information flow, and this applies elsewhere.

In a war, as they say, the first casualty is the truth. There are legitimate reasons to censor future events, but for reporting events that have already happened then censorship for reasons of keeping up morale, preventing panic or avoiding upsetting people is not worth the risk.

The availability of pro and anti-war debate on weblogs of Al-Jazeera and FOX is part of the democratization of news - throw it all out there and the truth will prevail. Truth and reason are economical while lies and propaganda need to be endlessly propped up.

Make this a war where the truth is not a casualty.

CBS News | China Keeps Lid On Bad News | March 27, 2003 18:39:35