Scanning the news

Fiasco in Iraq: The contrast between US military might in Iraq and America's effectiveness in restoring peace and democracy in the country is like night and day. Some policy analysts call it a "fiasco." While Rumsfeld complains that "you couldn't know how it would end," Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute thinks "the Bush Pentagon is so reluctant to accept open-ended military commitments, so ill disposed to acknowledging that it has a military that isn't up to all the tasks they face, that it simply assumed that it could restore civil order with a small, small force."

Ass on Wheels: The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports: "Under current tax law, it's permissible to write off $25,000 from your taxes in the first year after the purchase of a 6,000-pound truck or SUV. (Then there's the gravy of 20 percent a year after that.) But the Senate bill increases the tax deduction to $100,000."

No surprise: Just south of my hometown, a pro-war activist got into a melee with an anti-war activist. All in celebration of Armed Forces Day.

Department of Defense misplaces $1 trillion! Not to mention 56 airplanes, 32 tanks, 36 Javelin missile command launch-units, and--don't forget--1 Osama.

Muppet?