TCS postings

Tech Central Station has several posts today that I think are worth pointing out. Be sure to read the articles, I've provided little teasers as an enticement.

Fallujah Flip-Flops?

If a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, then, one month after our crucial victory in Fallujah, both the Bush Administration and its harshest critics should be counted among history's greatest geniuses. The rationales for and criticisms of our performance in Iraq have flipped and flopped depending on circumstances. So who's right?

Armor vs. Attitude

Look, we all want to see that our military have the best in battle, and from the Civil War soldiers who bought cast iron "body armor" from itinerant vendors to the G.I. tankers who piled sandbags on their poorly armored Sherman tanks back in 1944, frontline guys will always look for more protection however marginal.

But this latest flap puts a false focus on equipment-as-savior, rather than on the alertness, discipline and ass-kicking attitude needed not only to survive but to win against a vicious, implacable foe.

Marching Towards a Democratic Iraq

Few Americans lose sleep when their party doesn't control the White House or Congress. Democrats aren't happy with the re-election of George W. Bush, and who could blame them? But no one with any sense in their head worries about Republican death squads kicking down doors in the night. Liberals won't be frog-marched out of their homes, won't be interned in camps, and certainly won't be machine-gunned into a ditch. It's so easy for us to forget. There are few things less dangerous in the world than losing an election in the United States.