k - so now the bbc is reporting that there might be reports of a popular uprising near basra... civilians turning against their army... this is apparently a good thing, although it sounds kinda similar to saddam 'gasses his own people' one is good, and one is bad apparently...

and theres no sign of the 'chem factory' any more... it looks like they just crank this shit out and have moved on by the time there's any resolution... so the punters are just left with hazy thoughts about the geneva convention or drones or wmd or 911 or some stupid thing...

'the Race to Baghdad'? come on guys...

on a somewhat divergent note, i see that some more ozzie steel has had the tariffs lifted... am tempted to point out that it mite be a part of the bribe for participiation in the coalwill, but it seems to be a part of a larger program than that. ever since the tarrifs were introduced, there have been many exclusions, not surprisingly many of them going to oz... but perhaps the bigger question is why they were introduced in the first place - always struck me a hypocritical, and immediately there were many exclusions announced... was the policy the first anti-international of this admin? was it one of the 'first' US example to use blair style spin? why announce blanket tarriff protection, and then immediately offer exclusions for something like 30% (?) of the program? why not just announce the tariffs on the stuff that will be afftected? i dont know much of the detail - but it just seemed stupid to be promoting free trade on one hand, and then adding protection on the other cos the industry was in trouble...