... such as?

But what about all the civl liberties that have been suspended as Bushitler continues to stuff his personal gulag with everyone who dares to say anything that could be construed as criticism?

I don't see that John Murtha or Cindy Sheehan or anybody else from the disloyal opposition has disappeared from public view and are now in Bush's "gulag."

War? The war was over in a few days and the mission accomplished.

What drags on is an occupation inconvenienced by terrorist incidents. Every casulty is an individual tragedy, as is every urban homocide and highway fatality,

This is not war: war is Sharpsburg, the Somme, Iwo Jima; war is Dresden and Hiroshima.

If people are getting killed, it's war. I don't think you would tell the parents of a dead soldier that it is only an inconvenience.

The US accomplished its main war goals when Saddam was deposed and then captured. But we do have interests in having a stable Iraq when we leave - in order to leave. The failure to do so in 4 years is a strategic failure.

I believe that the lack of a "home front" was one of Bush's biggest mistakes. A sense of shared sacrifice binds the country together in times of war and focuses people on victory. We don't need an effort like in WWII, but we needed something (the first Gulf War did have something like it).

If people can contribute directly to the war effort they'd be more likely to support it. Of course, they'd also be less tolerant of the incompetence of the Bush administration in running the war - but that would have worked to our favor. In any case, it would be easier to implement what we need for our asymetrical warfare effort - reducing oil dependence to lower the funds available to terrorists.

Chris: If it is war then we have already lost. Such a so-called "war" can go on forever. Until the enemy is crushed, he may breed faster than we are killing him.

The losses concomitant to the Iraq occupation are militarily trivial--comparable to a bad street critter shoot-out we just had in Philadelphia over the weekend.

The trap we have gotten into is that we have no song: no Over There, no Columbia the Jem of the Ocean,not even a Ballad of the Green Berets. There is no spirit and power, at least not in the civilian world. If what we see in the news about social-work rules of engagement is any guide, there is not much more than none in the military.

A trap I called it. We have been so concerned to mask the reality of empire that we have neglected the spiritual component of power.

Confronted with the dream that an occupation of a conquered country is easily disposed of in four years, my memory reaches back to a little toy cork pistol I had around 1952 or so. Put together from cut-up tin-cans, it was, with a small, printed label, "Made in Occupied Japan."

Chris: If it is war then we have already lost. Such a so-called "war" can go on forever. Until the enemy is crushed, he may breed faster than we are killing him.

The losses concomitant to the Iraq occupation are militarily trivial--comparable to a bad street critter shoot-out we just had in Philadelphia over the weekend.

The trap we have gotten into is that we have no song: no Over There, no Columbia the Jem of the Ocean,not even a Ballad of the Green Berets. There is no spirit and power, at least not in the civilian world. If what we see in the news about social-work rules of engagement is any guide, there is not much more than none in the military.

A trap I called it. We have been so concerned to mask the reality of empire that we have neglected the spiritual component of power.

Confronted with the dream that an occupation of a conquered country is easily disposed of in four years, my memory reaches back to a little toy cork pistol I had around 1952 or so. Put together from cut-up tin-cans, it was, with a small, printed label, "Made in Occupied Japan."

The point being there are too few such parents to matter.

Chris: Still not war, and if we think it is, it is already lost. This level of banditry can go on inevitably, as the Israelis know.

You are exactly right in identifying the problem to be a lack of purpose. We have no song, no Over There, no Columbia the Gem of the Ocean, not even a Ballad of the Green Berets.

When I consider the fatuousness of concluding the occupation of a conquered country in four years, my thoughts go to a small toy pistol I had back around 1951. Actualy made from cut-up tin-cans, it was, and bearing a small tag, "Made in Occupied Japan."

Most inscrutable. I had submitted a comment, returned to the site some time later, didn't see it, and typed in another substantially the same. On checking to see if the second went through, behold, the first had as well.