For a continous war update see: The Agonist
For analysis see: dailyKOS
For a blog of an unembedded journalist: Back to Iraq 2.0

This is a must read...

Practice to Deceive
Chaos in the Middle East is not the Bush hawks' nightmare scenario--it's their plan.
By Joshua Micah Marshall

Imagine it's six months from now. The Iraq war is over. After an initial burst of joy and gratitude at being liberated from Saddam's rule, the people of Iraq are watching, and waiting, and beginning to chafe under American occupation. Across the border, in Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, our conquering presence has brought street protests and escalating violence. The United Nations and NATO are in disarray, so America is pretty much on its own. Hemmed in by budget deficits at home and limited financial assistance from allies, the Bush administration is talking again about tapping Iraq's oil reserves to offset some of the costs of the American presence--talk that is further inflaming the region. Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence has discovered fresh evidence that, prior to the war, Saddam moved quantities of biological and chemical weapons to Syria. When Syria denies having such weapons, the administration starts massing troops on the Syrian border. But as they begin to move, there is an explosion: Hezbollah terrorists from southern Lebanon blow themselves up in a Baghdad restaurant, killing dozens of Western aid workers and journalists. Knowing that Hezbollah has cells in America, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge puts the nation back on Orange Alert. FBI agents start sweeping through mosques, with a new round of arrests of Saudis, Pakistanis, Palestinians, and Yemenis.

To most Americans, this would sound like a frightening state of affairs, the kind that would lead them to wonder how and why we had got ourselves into this mess in the first place. But to the Bush administration hawks who are guiding American foreign policy, this isn't the nightmare scenario. It's everything going as anticipated.
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Josh Marshall has an excellent weblog: Talking Points Memo. Check out recent posts here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Here are a couple of headlines recycled from the Vietnam era.

More U.S. troops, armor head to Iraq  thanks to thoughts on the eve of the apocalypse

As President Bush declared the war in Iraq would last "however long it takes to win," the Pentagon said Thursday that 130,000 more troops were being deployed to the Persian Gulf region.
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Trying to Sort Out the Enemy From the Innocent

More...

How the Pentagon's promise of a quick war ran into the desert sand

03/27/03: War in Iraq - requirement for more troops  thanks to MyDD

My brother Marines are dying for nothing - AGAIN!  thanks to MyDD

SIX DAYS OF SHAME  thanks to also not found in nature

OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR  thanks to BookNotes

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