Flit

MORE SIGNS OF THE END

MORE SIGNS OF THE END

"The enemy's attacks are riskier than the methods we use to resist. They have a solid foundation, which will soon make its impact known in the course of the war. A nation that defended its freedom with all its resources has never yet been defeated."
--Josef Goebbels, "Resist at any Price," 22 April 1945

"We will do something which I believe is very beautiful... commando and martyrdom operations in a very new, creative way."
--Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, today

All we need is someone to do a Lord Haw Haw style drunken broadcast, and the parallels are just about complete. Sheryl Crow, call your agent...

WELL, THAT WAS... UNCHARITABLE Hesiod

WELL, THAT WAS... UNCHARITABLE

Hesiod on the late Michael Kelly. Hey I didn't have anything to say, either, that wasn't already said by my elders and betters, but at least I didn't use the opportunity to go around insulting people in mourning.

UPDATE: Hesiod calls Kelly's death "ironic." It's hardly that, unless he's using "ironic" in the Alanis Morissette sense of stuff that makes you go "you're kidding." Now, the fact that the Americans drove to the international airport by way of Iskanderiya (or as the Iraqis would say, Al Iskanderiya... get it yet?)... that's closer to ironic, I'd say. Of course, you'd have to be up on your Arrian.

EASY MISTAKE It appears the

EASY MISTAKE

It appears the estimable Mr. Den Beste has gotten something a little wrong. His picture of the runway at the newly renamed Baghdad International Airport, which he claimed showed the effects of JP-233 style runway cratering, can't be what he thought that was, because all the reports are saying that the runways are undamaged, other than for piles of sand placed by the Iraqis, evidently to deny hostile landings. Which, presumably, is what Den Beste is seeing. (Kudos to Keith Patton in Flitters for seeing the obvious first.)

RUMMY-LOVE DEGRADES READING COMPREHENSION, APPARENTLY

RUMMY-LOVE DEGRADES READING COMPREHENSION, APPARENTLY

Andrew Sullivan takes an intelligent observation and turns it into pro-Rumsfeld propaganda. Remarking on a piece on how (Army) helicopters, (Army) artillery, and (Air Force) fast air made the advance to Baghdad easier, he concludes:

From my particular, reclining armchair, it looks as if this war will be won primarily by the amazing work of the special forces, and the airforce (with critical backup, of course, on the ground). But that would prove Rummy right, wouldn't it?

The armchair in question apparently reclines Andrew to where he sees quotes upside down. If the battle in question is being two-thirds won by Army helicopters and Army artillery, then the Army still deserves the majority of the credit, surely. And what is the "amazing work of the special forces" again? Yes, no doubt, they've done some great things, but what specific already-known-to-us accomplishments is he referring to?

UPDATE: Speaking of Rumsfeld love... this was classic.

THE COLLAPSE STARTS The second

THE COLLAPSE STARTS

The second of the three good Republican Guard divisions, the Nida Division, has collapsed back into Baghdad. There are reports of large numbers of prisoners. There's never been any claims the Nida Division was hit particularly hard from the air... what we're likely seeing now is more a combination of desertions, surrenders and the abandonment of heavy equipment, which can do little more for the Iraqis still willing to fight than attract an air attack at this point. (Of course, there's no way you can tell that from a helicopter cockpit or the turret of an advancing tank, so the Marines are making wreckage of them, anyway.)