“...with a monarch's voice cry 'Havoc!'
And let slip the dogs of war”
Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene I

There can be no doubt that the dogs of war have been released. The Iraqis have shown the poor taste to actually fight rather than roll over & play dead, or greet us as the great liberators we would like to be. To me, the choice seems clear:

In the words of "Stonewall" Jackson, "Kill them all." [Citation corrected by Dr. Ohmed] The recent suicide bombings confirm that the Iraqis are intent on fighting an urban guerilla war. Even prior to this, Iraqi soldiers have been dressing as civilians and faking surrender in order to ambush allied troops. A "civilized war" which seeks to avoid civilian casualties might be a noble idea, but it is not a practical one. Let's face it, "a civilized war" is a contradiction in terms right up there with "military intelligence."

Look, I'm opposed to the war. I walked in opposition to this pre-emptive strike, and I don't believe it has a shred of legitimacy. I really am not a hawk. If there were a way to step back from the brink, I wish all concerned would do so. But once the dogs have war have been released, the thing takes on a life of its own.

Our leaders have married Ares; now they must accept the bloody terms of the marriage contract. The great god of war will not be stoped until his taste for blood has been thoroughly sated, and then some. If the US and Britain hope to win this war, they'd better pull out that "shock & awe" plan pretty soon. They better be ready to bomb Bagdad into the stone age (the US has considerable experience in this area). They'd better be ready to make Sherman's "scorched earth policy" look like a Sunday picnic. We have little to lose. If we get stalled in the back alleys of Iraq's few remaining major cities, we won't look any better than we would as savage winners.

BTW, who did Donald Rumsfeld sleep with? I mean, it's bad enough this thing looks like it was dreamed up by a bunch of drunken frat boys playing Risk, but this guy has a pecular talent for saying stupid stuff. This week's New Yorker has an article quoting "unnamed Pentagon sources" which states that Rumsfeld wanted to send less troups into Iraq. This is the same military genius who said we didn't need the British to win in Iraq. This also the same tactical wiz kid who suggested we pull our troups out of South Korea just as the North is rattling its nuclear arsenal.