"Meanwhile, the Iraqis are putting their constitution in place, taking over security themselves and we start drawing down troops late this year or early next"

I wouldn't count on it. I think that most of these projections are overly optimistic. After all, we were told that the insurgency would die down after we captured Saddam, after we "transferred sovereignty," and after we had the election. (To be fair, it did temporarily go down after the election, but not for long). Yet, it still goes on, and otehr than March and April, every month in 2005 so far has seen more coalition fatalities than the corresponding month in 2004.

But I do partly agree with this statement:

"They're anti-Bush, not anti-war."

I don't think it applies to the right-wing anti-warriors, but I think it applies to most of the Democrats. I see Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul as antiwar on principle, and Chuck Hagel as being antiwar because of pragmatic reasons (he honestly believes that the war is going poorly). But John Kerry, John Edwards, and most of the other Democrats - yeah, they're only against the war because Bush is running it.

It applies especially to the Right.

"what more could anyone want?"

[Hey, what happened to the rest of my comment? This new system is flaky.]

Peace Now! Peace Any Price! (but only if someone else pays.)

Probably many Democratic politicians (in D.C.) and about 15% of the population wouldn't object to a step upwards in casualties, each week. And more video of wounded and dead soldiers. And smoking craters.

The roundhouse lambasting of the FX show "Over There" has surely disappointed the anti-war left, so they would like to see (more of) the real thing on TV every night.

I've seen two episodes of Over There, and it doesn't seem anti-war to me - just cliched.

Kind of a 21st century Combat.

Posted by: Michael Herdegen at August 29, 2005 3:08 AM

"Kind of a 21st century Combat"

Oh, hell, I might check it out then. I thought it was going to be a bunch of anti-war trash. Too bad Vic Morrow's dead, though.

Posted by: Governor Breck at August 29, 2005 7:46 AM

"What more could anyone want?" Well, for starters they want President Chimpy McHallibushitler to resign, or be impeached, or something. Then comes the mean stuff.

I have caught only one episode of "Over There," not being too much of a television viewer, and found it to be not at all "anti-war."

Rather, like Michael H, I found it to be very, very much like the old "Combat" series I grew up on" a small unit, face-to-face relationships, leadership situations at the NCO level, danger, adversity, losses--that's what "Combat" was about.