Well, the ceasefire seems to be holding, thank goodness. What a stupid, stupid, stupid war. Never ascribe to malice, they say, that which can be explained by incompetence. Juan Cole offers a well-deserved extended bitterly-funny sneer at all the players on the stage. Also, he has a letter from Patrick McGreevy that seems to savor of truth. We owe sympathy to the victims on both sides. And I can’t help feeling some for the grunts, on both sides badly led, on one side marching into rough territory where the other side’s had years to dig in and get ready for you, on the other living in caves and getting hammered by the best modern Western military technology. The Hez boys think that having lived through it, they won. I don’t think anyone did.
