Can't you just see Robert Duvall, jumping from his heliocopter and looking for the guy who is the best surfer in Iraq?. Well, that's not so strange given that the Pentagon is sending sailors to fight in the dessert.

That's all I could think of yesterday while driving. The news kept trumpeting the "massive" U.S./Iraqi offensive against insurgents. Several news reporters had clearly had some of the kool aid proclaiming that the Iraqi's had led the charge! Yeah right.

I find it difficult to accept that the military is reliving Vietnam. Vietnam was such a traumatic defeat for the American military that you would think there would be some institutional memory of what not to do. Sending out massive amounts of power, particularly air power, to subdue a popular insurgency is just insanity. The arrests of "insurgents" and the killing of civilians will simply strengthen the hand of the insurgency. For every real insurgent removed by the battle, there will be two civilians who will be motivated to join.

Think about it for a minute. Suppose the Iranians invaded the U.S. Suppose they got the upper hand militarily and were instigating a massive air campaign against, oh say, Birmingham Alabama. Just exactly what do you think would happen? I'm not particularly fond of the politics in Alabama. But I'd get a gun, get in my car, and go join my Alabama brothers in resistance.

I don't know. Maybe there's some kind of political reason for the mission. But I doubt it.

I'm so depressed about Iraq .....