very, very bad

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.

NZ troops being pulled out of Iraq

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3035130a10,00.html

bad badger

checked in at the gym today: 263--doubtless the result of Tuesday's debauch and a little backsliding here and there. :-(