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I was going to drop the subject but since there is no end in sight, I can just as well get used to it. Having followed the efforts by media to report the situation in Iraq, I sense a sharp change in policy. The once so trusty TV channels and newspapers in the UK and US have started to become a problem for their respective governments. Both Blair and Bush have said so outright. As overly optimistic as they were at the beginning, they have now swayed to become a hysteric group of pessimists. It’s enormously difficult to say where the truth lies in all of this.
Sean-Paul over at The Agonist is keeping up his brilliant account of the current conflict. It’s just too bad he has to sleep and leave us all in the dark for several hours a day 
Agonist is currently busy speculating about the amount of smart ammunitions used up so far. Several sources have claimed that the coalition will simply run out of SLCM and TLAM Tomahawks (Sea-launched Cruise Missile and Tomahawk Land Attack Missile) and that the carrier groups are running out of various bomb types as well.
According to this article the Pentagon is about to unleash hell in Washington:
Report: Rumseld Ignored Pentagon Advice on Iraq
It also quotes the same Pentagon source saying that “… the war was now a stalemate …” and that “much of the supply of Tomahawk cruise missiles has been expended, aircraft carriers were going to run out of precision guided bombs and there were serious maintenance problems with tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment”. Finally, “The only hope is that they can hold out until reinforcements arrive” .
Just brilliant … and just when you though that the propaganda machine couldn’t get any worse, this hits the fan: Iraqi civilians feed hungry US marines
As troops munched on their feast, one medic warned the food could have been deliberately contaminated.
He was quickly disregarded as the hungry marines forged ahead to make a fondue out of a donated tin of Australian processed cheese, but the potatoes were eaten before the cheese could melt.
I don’t buy that the US would be this vulnerable BUT they are certainly on short supply of food (1 MRE/day someone said?). Rushing headlong into battle has its consequences. Official sources have said that this is the fastest advance in the history of war. Maybe. But rushing ahead without accomplishing anything is not really an accomplishment …
Furthermore, no one seemed to have anticiated that soldiers have to sleep. What happens after you’ve been driving an M1A2 tank for 60 hours with no real re-supply or rest? (correct answer: friendly fire)
Elsewhere:
Iraqi opposition leader rejects post-war US military administration
The IID (Independent Iraqis for Democracy) consists mainly of liberal, independent figures. Participants at the meeting also included two important religious Shiite figures, Mohamed Bahr al Ulum, and Hussein al Sadr.
It is keen to distinguish itself from the mainstream US-backed opposition, which consists of six groups including the Iraqi National Congress (INC) of Ahmed Chalabi and the two main Kurdish parties.
Amnesty: Iraq Shrouds Human Rights Abuses Elsewhere
Amnesty said that since the U.S.-British onslaught was launched against Iraq 10 days ago, there had been a human rights backlash in 14 countries.
It listed Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Jordan, Norway, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Turkey, the United States and Yemen as transgressors.
Pissed off exile Iraqi phones american radio station to defend the war. Has a good point even if I beg to disagree with regard to the Amnesty report and previous statements.
