Friday, March 21, 2003

Daily Kos says:

Shock and Awe
Pretty freakin' awesome, I must admit. And it looks like it's been relatively confined to military and government targets. But let's face it, those buildings are all empty. I remember earlier this week a story on Iraqi government workers taking out all valuable equipment (computers, faxes, etc.) out of such buildings since they knew they were top targets.

So it's loud, it's bright, the ground shakes, perhaps some Iraqi military personnel die and it makes Americans feel good. But it's also billions of dollars of ordnance dropped on empty buildings, and it's loud, and bright, is hitting empty targets, undoubtedly killed civilians (there's always collateral damage), and is not playing well in the rest of the world.

And one perhaps unintended consequence -- the vast majority of Iraqi defenders spread out over Baghdad will survive the bombardment, emboldened by the fact they survived the most intense aerial bombardment in the history of warfare. For all we know, this may actually boost morale...