Half Full Mostly Empty

I mistakenly forgot to copy my post before hitting the publish button. And, continuing the trend, Blogger is acting like shit.

Anyway, I took a look at CNN and The New York Times this morning, of course, and both are announcing glorious news--a smashing victory over the forces of Central Asia...24, or maybe it's 26 dead insurgents...Haifa Street, aka Purple Heart Boulevard (160 awarded to soldiers patroling it), is quieter these days (until fighting flares up again--mark my words).

Juan Cole, on the other hand, offers a more sobering assessment:

That [the insurgents] can still field 24 at a time, even if they were killed, is not a good sign.

This weekend marked the beginning of the third year of the war (Mission Accomplished? No, not really--in fact, not at all). The BEST news the government can announce is the death of two dozen more insurgents? I wonder how many "accidental" deaths occurred over the weekend. Oh, that's right: we don't do body counts.

Upwards of 100,000 killed on their side, definitely over 1500 US soldiers killed (and more than 10,000 injured), the cost standing at almost $160 billion dollars...doesn't sound like much of an anniversary to celebrate. Oh, and can those who were throwing temper tantrums two years ago until the invasion began provide any comparisons between occupied Iraq and occupied Germany--or Japan--after a similar period of occupation? Cole actually compares Iraq to either Northern Ireland (US=England), Sri Lanka (US=India) or Lebanon (US=Syria). NONE are particularly comforting to consider...