The Taking of Fallujah--A First-Hand Account

Kevin Ferris--the token sane person at the Inquirer--reviews the book We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder With the Marines Who Took Fallujah.

I'm buying the book today, you can buy it here.

I'll review once I finish, but the Patrick K. O'Donnell work looks good.

Ferris is a voice of reason in a newspaper awash in anti-war, knee-jerk garbage. Note today's editorial:

No, he won't talk to Iran or Syria until they do what the United States wants them to do on other issues. No, he does not see ending the fighting between Israel and Palestinians as connected to U.S. hopes for Iraq. Nor does he agree with changing the U.S. troop focus from combat to training.

If the Road Runner-like speed of his rejection seems familiar, it should. It's the same Bush administration reflex that helped make the mess in Iraq - and left the United States with shrinking options and leverage.

...Open-mindedness and realism long before now would have allowed the administration to make better choices about stabilizing Iraq from the start. It could have meant earlier policy and strategy revisions that were tied to actual events on the ground.

It is too late to change what has happened. Do-overs are possible in children's games, not in wars. The original goal of having democracy flower in Iraq and spread throughout the region seems as unlikely now as before Saddam's regime fell.

And so it goes. The Inquirer wonders why it's circulation is shrinking on a daily basis and employee/management relations are at their nadir, the answer is on their editorial page every day. The problem is that to discover it, the editorial board would actually have to face reality and would rather sink and be liberal than thrive and be fair.