After I spent all that time writing that last missive I went and found out that Jed Babbin had already said the same thing (read the March 25 entry about Big Dogs, etc) and, as usual, much better than I could.
In truth, it has been many television and print pundits–not Rumsfeld or the president–who taught us that this war would be easy, and that all we had to do is show up to win. But now that we have hit a few speed bumps– and that’s all the negative developments of the past day were–people are saying that we’re back to the “q” word: quagmire. Oh, please. We’re six days into this, with less than half the casualties we had in the First Gulf war. Our troops are now engaged in the first big battle with the Republican Guard, and by all reports are kicking tail. CENTCOM refused to get into the “body count” business today, and wisely so. The trail of blood and burnt vehicles will tell the tale too well, once the battlefield is safe for journalists to wander.