Old news, but why not?
Son of Gulf War began a lot like College (American) Football season. A large school like LSU takes on a creampuff like North Texas State and proceeds to beat the stuffing out of them for the entertainment of the assembled masses. There are many reasons behind this ritual, including a big payout for the small school, a quick "W" on the schedule for the powerhouse (which keeps up the all important ranking), and the chance for area businesses like hotels, restaurants, and taverns to make some money. Everyone wins, right?

Except, on occasion, the small school doesn't play along--sometimes just for a quarter, but sometimes for the whole game, the opponent doesn't realize that they're supposed to "take their buttwhipping" and go home. If you hear the game broadcast on the radio, the announcer usually notes something like "well, the Tigers look a little out of rhythm--the North Texas Iraqis are surprisingly hanging in, down by only a touchdown--but it is still early in the second quarter. LSU missed an extra point, I hope it doesn't come back to haunt them."

And that's what I saw at the beginning of the war--the US was oddly stalled as the winds picked up, the resistance was stronger than expected, the high tech equipment was jammed, and the fuel ran low. Then, of course, the second half came along, and it was like most American Football games--a big win for the Shockers and Awers.

But, now what? Because, funny enough, it's usually the winners that tear down the goalposts, not the losers. But tear down the goalposts is exactly what the North Texas Iraqis did, looting every public building that wasn't protected, which turned out to be EVERY public building--except, of course, the Ministry of Oil. Ah, but freedom is a messy thing, according to Don Rumsfeld, and I don't think he'd appreciate messy things happening in DC--or, for that matter, anywhere in this country. And that's simply the beginning of what has truly become an utter tragedy.

Because, football analogies aside, murder and mayhem are no joke. Neither is being caught in a vise if you happen to be a young man or woman who enlisted for college money or even for serving the public good. Now these folks are stuck in a foreign country with little or no knowlege of the local language, customs, or habits. Given that on any given day or night, a soldier there could be caught in an ambush--well, I imagine that has a way of making someone pretty edgy. Edgy enough to shoot first and ask questions later--not exactly the best way to win hearts and minds.

I'm going to cut this post short, but I will end with one other football analogy--remember, in Iraq, FOOTBALL is what we call SOCCER. Ever heard reports about how soccer fans behave after a match? OK, I know it's mainly ENGLISH fans, but most folks in the US barely know anything about soccer, and what they do know is usually filtered via the Brit Premier League, I expect. But I don't think it's such a bad allusion, i.e., until we begin to understand the customs, habits, cultures, and, yes, languages of the rest of the world, we stand a damn good chance of getting stuck in ugly wars like Son of Gulf War has become....