Wha?
According to the New York Times, the latest round of stupidity in Iraq started when the Marines decided by themselves to go after Muqtada al-Sadr.
Huh? I thought that we had modern technology, like, um, radios (to say nothing of telephones, videoconferencing gear, talk programs, and the like) so that you could actually do something like maintain a chain of command from the people who were running the war down to the grunts who were actually fighting it. I know, it's like communism and stuff if you actually run the armed forces like armed forces, but if Maximum Leader Genius and his flying monkeys are just winding up the armed forces and letting them toddle off like extremely well-armed childrens toys that raises the level of incompetence to new and frightening levels.
I'd say "where are the court-martials", but this sounds like yet another case of the rot starting at the head and working its way down. And, in the grand tradition of the New! Improved! Now with extra added evil!™ Republican Party, the footsoldiers are the ones who end up dying while the country digs itself deeper into the tarpit.
Feh. Vote for John Kerry, because the country cannot survive another 4 years of Republican incompetence.