Beirut

The problem with fighting an insurgency war is that they have less to lose than you do. A swatch of suicide bombers can kill hundreds and destroy military morale. Now we've learned that yesterday's mess hall attack in Mosul followed this pattern. Gen. Richard Myers today indicated that the preliminary investigation showed that a suicide bomber with an IED was repsonsible for the attack, not a series of mortar shells or a rocket. This is probably the first time in Iraq that this has happened, and this is exactly was caused so much disruption in other insurgencies like in Vietnam. This is about the worst thing that can happen. As a cause of an unnecessary, pre-emptive war with a dearth of available troops for the postwar situation, now we cannot even keep military bases safe from terror.

As much as one would like to blame someone for this particular attack, but in actuality there's nobody to blame. It's just another tragic tactic in this war, and it's nearly impossible to defend against one man with explosives and a great deal of will. The only thing there is to blame is this war itself, with its climbing death tolls and civilian casualties, with rising troop deployments and no end to the security instability. This is The Beirut attack on the Marine base in 1983 all over again. Reagan used that as an impetus to get out. Bush won't; don't even think about it. The time to get out passed about 18 months ago. Anyone that thinks the upcoming elections will magically change the situation on the ground is smoking something. Baghdad's fall didn't change anything. Neither did Uday and Qusay's death. Or Saddam's capture. Or the first siege of Fallujah. Or the handover of power to the interim government. Or the second siege of Fallujah. And all of these moments were called turning points at the time. The "everything's fine, nothing to see here" style of warring strategy isn't working; in fact, it gets worse by the month. Now the entire strategy is "it'd be worse if we left." Which is of course true, but not enough of an explanation (and, not the same explanation for war as before; that one's changed about 22 times).

We mourn for those who have died in Bush's war.