I've been using this Reuters feature ever since the war began...it is the best 'Net video coverage of the war, IMHO.

It's kind of interesting to listen to the reporters' idle chatter, and hear them practice their lines like 10-15 times before they go on the air. I also like the fact that you don't have to listen to the inane prattle of the CNN anchor, who's compelled to fill every second of airtime by just repeating the same story over and over again.

Please; the inspectors had the better part of a decade to fulfill their mandate.

Sycamore has lost control of his woman :)


At least wait for some type of bad news for the coalition or *something* before we start promoting the silly notion that Blix could have done anything of value here, in any timeperiod, with any team.

Beatin' the flowers growing from what was the carcass that was the dead horse, but ... It can be argued that the result was a good one, and that the UN wasn't living up to it's promise of "Never again".

That being said, it is really becoming clear that Bush thinks he is leading the next crusade against the A-rabs. I don't trust his motivations for invading and liberating Iraq, even if the outcome is a better life for the Iraqis. I think that Haliburton and W's friends will benefit greatly from this. I haven't seen much of nor heard from Cheney in all of this. It makes me think he was in intense planning sessions with Haliburton and their subsidiaries for the reconstruction.

I don't have any high-minded ideals on this, I think if W continues, this will get biblical.

Slang, sit down for a minute. Now listen, I know you're a throwback to the old school, but in the modern day, we treat our women as equals. *waits for slang to start bawling and get it out of him* I know, I know...sometimes it pisses me off too, but that's the way it goes.

I ain't buying that, Russotto. It doesn't seem to me that our last President kept the Iraqis on a short leash. For that matter, it didn't seem a huge matter to our current president prior to 9/11.

What's done is done here...I don't think we'll ever know whether there were or were not WMDs, IMO. The inspectors came up empty, and I'll view anything found by COW forces with immediate suspicion.

And now, judging by the last couple of days, Syria is going to replace Iraq on that axis of evil. Let's see how this plays out...

I decided to merge the two threads Rho created into here b/c they seemed more appropriate in here.

I don't think it's been posted here, but I've heard it on both MSNBC and CBC: The poetry of Donald Rumsfeld.

Rumsfeld is either an idiot or a genius. I'm leaning toward idiot, though. He's arrogant as hell, according to what I've been reading, and what I interpret from his demeanor on TV. I saw him stare down some people who were apparently talking off to his right during a press conference last week concurrent with the toppling of the Saddam statue. He just stopped talking, and turned his head and stared off to his right until the subdued chat ceased, then turned and went on with his spiel.

I don't like him one bit...is it just me?

The "poetry" was a brilliant concept, though. Too bad it took someone else to mine the gems from his ramblings and view them with a artistic eye.

Clinton kept Saddam on such a short leash that the latter felt free to take a shot at G.H.W.Bush. Which was likely part of the reason for the current war.

Since the first war, Saddam had been playing games with the weapons inspectors. He'd invite them in, then deny them access to various areas. Then he'd kick some of them out. Then the US would threaten and he'd back down. Lather, rinse, repeat. Even a decade later, he still had over-range missiles, whether or not he had chemical weapons (and I think he did; I can't believe he'd destroy all of it). He would have played his cat and mouse game until the UN gave up and left him alone.

Well, now that the war has all but ended, it's time to close up the diary. I'll leave you folks with something from yesterday's edition of PRI's The World: Concerns that a cholera epidemic may now be hitting Basra.

May the Iraqis find the path to peace and prosperity...with as little help from any other nation as possible.

Given that the war seems to have "new life", the diary is being reopened.