While I still have no doubt about our ultimate victory certain things about this war do irk me. It does appear that we seem to value Iraqi civilian casualties higher than we value casualties among our own troops. This no doubt derives partly from our attempt to completely separate the Iraqi people from its government. While President Bush has been admirably on target when it comes to the correct justification of the war, namely, the intolerability of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terrorist sponsoring regime like Iraq, particularly in the shadow on the 9/11 massacre, others such as Dennis Prager seem to focus primarily on the benefits that the overthrow of the regime would have for the Iraqi people. Unfortunately, there is some reason to belive that his war is being fought more in line with Prager's assumptions than our own national self-interest. Particularly relevant is the following column, which concludes rather thoughtfully: "The declarations of respect for Iraq look like a cover for the U.S. administration's own uncertainty - reflecting a desire not to be seen launching an American war in the name of American interests." It is truly a sad day when the greatest and most powerful country in history cannot proudly assert its own self interests.

Of course, this should all sound very familiar, as that is almost exactly how the Afghan war was fought, and, I might add won, despite various politically correct efforts which seemed to undermine it. It does appear that we have some leeway in the extent to which we can undermine our own efforts, at least up to a certain point. An interesting thought experiment would be to imagine how the battle would go if we did not engage in these pc shenanigans. I suspect it might just go a lot better than people would expect (not that things are going particularly bad at the moment).