ARTICLE: U.S. diplomats returning from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder, By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY, May 1, 2007 ARTICLE: Key US Army ranks begin to thin, By Gordon Lubold, Christian Science Monitor, May 2, 2007 ARTICLE: U.S.-Iran Talks Unlikely at Conference, By Robin Wright, Washington Post, May 2, 2007; Page A11 OP-ED: "The Hail Mary Pass," By Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, May 2, 2007

The first piece shows the SysAdmin stuff, when pursued in the toughest spots (and here, under the toughest circumstances--thanks to Bush), is hard on all involved. But remember this: It can be done well. It was done well in the former Yugoslavia (when Clinton got around to it), and it's done routinely well in resilient Florida (Remember the summer of 3 successive hurricanes a bit back? I do, because I traveled there repeatedly during that time frame and Florida did just fine). So reducing our current universe to Iraq and Katrina is bogus. It's an oldie but a goodie: success is a poor teacher, while failure is a great one. Having said that, we need to recognize the wins as well as the losses, and stop pretending the latter defines our ceilings, when it simply marks the floor. Those situations (as Friedman points out today WRT Iraq) are pure Bush-Cheney-isms, not particularly reflective of America. This fish, as the old Russian proverb says, begins rotting at the head. And that's why this upcoming Iraq summit is unlikely to yield much: these guys never admit mistakes (Friedman's dream), meaning one of our biggest difficulties with Iran is how similar our leaderships' styles truly are. Meanwhile, Yingling's complaints seem born out by Army stats, suggesting the toll of this administration will be great indeed. But don't extrapolate the entire 21st century from Bush. Too many self-professed strategic thinkers are doing that and it's quite silly. Life will go on without Bush, and it will move along just fine--much better, in fact.