UPDATED - ColdType

NEW YORK, MARCH 25, 2003
IS THE INVASION BOGGED
DOWN IN A NEW QUAGMIRE?
The view from Mesopotamia is that trouble’s in store
N Day 6, the rubber is hitting the road, and the road is hitting back. It may be that the special
Oscar to Peter O’Toole – the man who played Lawrence of Arabia at the lowest-rated
Academy Awards show in recent history – was an attempt to remind us of the joys of the
colonial era when British overlords would sip tea at the palaces in Baghdad. Despite the
heaviest pounding in history from the air, from the shock and awe that was admittedly AWEful,
the Iraqis are holding on, fighting back and throwing a curve ball at the Pentagon and forcing a
rewrite of the media scripts that forecast a quick rout, with kebab for all.
This is the week of the Q word, the week that
media is mesmerized by the Quagmire parallel.
It’s true; the war appears, for the moment, to
be turning into a quagmire as others have done
in the past. You can’t abolish history, even when
you ignore it. The difficulties are now overshadowing
the successes and the Pentagon/Administration
is becoming more defensive.
All the focus on Saddam’s whereabouts seems
to have shifted. We are getting more and more
stories like this one from Joseph Galloway of
Knight Ridder:
“WASHINGTON – Five days into the war, the
optimistic assumptions of the Pentagon’s civilian
war planners have yet to be realized, the risks of
the campaign are becoming increasingly apparent
and some current and retired military officials
are warning that there may be a mismatch
between Secretary of Defense Donald H.
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Rumsfeld’s strategy and the force he’s sent
to carry it out.
“The outcome of the war isn’t in doubt: Iraq’s
forces are no match for America and its allies.
But, so far, defeating them is proving to be
harder, and it could prove to be longer and costlier
in American and Iraqi lives.”
On the tube
ON the TV nets, the generals are working overtime
to explain, and explain away, why the Iraqi
uprising has not yet occurred, with the proverbial
fat lady yet to sing songs of welcome. It is
hard to believe that we are getting the full story
despite all the embeds and all the expertise. It’s
hard to know whom to believe.
Last night, CSPAN brought us the Canadian