The Iraq War is a miserable failure (except politically)
Three things you need to read today:
1) Disaster in Iraq is made clearer by a retiring General, willing now to tell the truth, as reported in the Washington Post:

"When you order elements of a Marine division to attack a city, you really need to understand what the consequences of that are going to be and not perhaps vacillate in the middle of something like that," he said. "Once you commit, you got to stay committed."

2 and 3) 2 posts by Josh Marshall, back from vacation with lots to say. First, how Iraq has become a non-issue in the campaign, and its stubborn failure a political asset for the President. Second, he trashes the crazy argument that the War is a good thing because it allows us to fight the terrorists there, rather than here:

The only thing complicated about this argument is calibrating a hierarchy of all the levels of foolishness it embodies. Logically it is nonsensical; strategically it is moronic; morally it is close to indefensible.

Gotta run to class, but later today: Kenny has a brilliant idea about the Presidential debates, Pat Buchanan makes a frightening amount of sense, and Joel Snider responds to Article 19! So come back this afternoon/evening.