very, very bad

[winterbadger]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2004/09/16/iraq_war/

Thanks to karai_lambert for the link; I've been getting a bit tired of some of the mindless ranting I find on Salon, so I haven't been reading them as often.

But this is a must-read. I'm not as familiar with Joseph Hoare or Andrew Terrill, but I know Jeffrey Record by reputation, and I used to work for a guy who was a protege of Bill Odom's, and Gen. Odom is not dummy nor someone prone to alarmism or partisan politics. So when he says this, I know things are worse than I could have imagined:

I've never seen it so bad between the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the military. There's a significant majority believing this is a disaster. The two parties whose interests have been advanced have been the Iranians and al-Qaida. Bin Laden could argue with some cogency that our going into Iraq was the equivalent of the Germans in Stalingrad. They defeated themselves by pouring more in there. Tragic.

Comments

[robbysmom.livejournal.com]

meanwhile, official sources say more trops ot be deployed through 2007:
http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.php?f=1-AIRPAPER-346094.php

And the Navy Times is reporting a survery of high morale
http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-NAVYPAPER-345770.php

However, the survery, says the article, was taken LAST FALL.

and even that report says the situation is different in the army:
One key exception: Army soldiers, bearing the brunt of the Iraq campaign, show declining desire to remain in uniform compared with a July 2002 survey, taken during the lull between the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions. Slightly fewer Air Force members also said they were likely to stay in. On the other hand, a growing number of sailors and Marines said they would like to stay in uniform.