Max Boot goes to Iraq. He has been an ardent supporter of the war and tepidly supportive of the president. His findings, I think, reflect the difficulty with broad generalizations about the current state of Iraq. It's not as simple as "we're winning" or "quagmire". We're winning in some places and losing in others. It runs the gamut. Dana would have you believe that since Baghdad had more/more consistant power before the invasion, things are, therefore, worse. This is patent strawman and he knows it. He's not a dumb guy but he is a partisan. The production and distribution of power has many drivers. It's important to remember there was a war that, while brief and focused in scope, broke things. So, we had to fix the power supply before doing anything. Secondly, the grid is old and was poorly maintained. Many areas outside Baghdad didn't have power on anything approaching a regular basis. Now they do. That changes things dramatically. Al Qaeda has been attacking power substations periodically which also degrades consistancy. Consumption is also much higher than pre-invasion levels. Throw all these factors in the mix and the picture changes dramatically. Sorry for the tangent, but it speaks to my larger point that things aren't as cut an dried as either camp would have you believe.
Quarantine 2008 has ended
Fair warning: possibly graphic post and not for the squeamish. So it all started Friday night. Wife and I had a long day (as usual) and had finally finished with dishes, laundry and the rest of the normal daily grind. The baby had been fussy most of the day and had spit up here and there. Mostly we thought it had been switching from formula to milk which can sometimes cause this type of thing. By the time kid #4 rolls around you tend to let these things slide. If this were #1 we'd have called in a medivac at the first sign of vomiting in a 1 year old. He finally calmed down and we got him off to sleep. We watched a bit of The Wire and retired (very) late. About 10 minutes later #2 wakes up crying complaining of a stomach ache. I ask if he has to go to the bathroom and he says no, it's not that. His stomach really hurts. OK, into my bed and I'll get the heating pad for a bit. We get him settled and he calms down. Knowing that he tends towards the dramatic, I s...
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