Flit

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND "...The

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND

"...The 3rd Infantry [Division] was sent to war with only one battalion of MLRS rocket-launched artillery, a powerful long-range system that can reach out 30 miles and obliterate more than a third of a square mile of enemy soldiers or enemy tanks. Usually, it would have brought two brigades of MLRS launchers, about six battalions."

--Joseph Galloway, Miami Herald

Been over the news, and while there's still a couple question marks I need to tease out, it's notable how so very little has changed in the last 48 hours. The 101st Airborne appears to have been given that task of occupying Najaf, which would be a key acquisition to continue the advance.. The Iraqis, on a line from Karbala to Hillah, are being pounded from the air, still... the Marines are biting and holding little non-significant chunks of Mespotamian farmland, and the British all still completely stalled. In fact, it's fair to say that after 4 days of rapid advance, the American move forward basically halted last Sunday, and everything since then has been consolidation and positioning moves. I defy anyone to tell that from the last week of newspaper headlines alone, though: the time lag between reality change and expectation change seems to be about a week. So we had a week's worth of "Americans march on Baghdad" headlines when they weren't going anywhere, and now this week, when I fully expect they'll start moving again, we'll get a lot of "Are Americans stalled?" heads.

THIS PROBABLY COUNTS FOR ANOTHER

THIS PROBABLY COUNTS FOR ANOTHER OF MY 15 MINUTES

I only got the two good quotes in the recent John Allemang piece on warblogs in the Globe, but it was still a tremendously pleasant interview. He was clearly working hard at trying to understand this corner of the blogging phenomenon. Would that every reporter took such care. Cheers, John: it was nice talking to you again.

Just got back in from a weekend running a rifle range... rest assured we shall be returning to our regularly scheduled war shortly, as soon as I manage to catch up on the last 48.