Fisk - The Monster of Baghdad is Now the Hero of Arabia

General Tommy Franks has accomplished one "truly remarkable achievement''. He has turned the monster of Baghdad into the hero of the Arab world and allowed Iraqis to teach every opponent of America how to fight their enemy.

The Daily Kos has a long report from officer X, in the vanguard of American troops on the way to Baghdad.

“The truth hurts.”

Wallace’s statements—along with how Rumsfeld is retreating from responsibility for the war plan—tells me that the upper echelons wargamed what they wanted to see, versus what military professionals would have done, which is to plan for the worse case scenario and then figure that anything less than that would be great to have. Or as Officer Y says, “Train as if you were fighting the Waffen SS, and you can never go wrong.”

It appears that evidence pointing to all of the ongoing signs was available, but was ignored.

Kos - "The truth hurts." Don't know what I can add to that, except a deep and abiding hope that the idiots who created this nightmare someday get to feel some of that pain.