Imperialism is not easy. That's the lesson our budding Americo-fascists (if Andrew Sullivan can coin "Islamo-fascism" as the great boogeyman of the 21st Century, then I'll say that the Americo-fascism which has festered in response to it is an even greater danger to the stability of our Republic and the world at large) learned over the weekend, as their breathless cheerleading of the war against Saddam was tempered by the very real possibility of a protracted guerilla war in regions supposedly "taken" over the past six days of blitzkrieg through Southern Iraq. I'm starting to think that the Bush administration oversold America on the idea that the Iraqi state was a house of cards that would topple with ease if Saddam and his sons were taken out of the picture. They even sold themselves on this idea, and hastily changed their battle plans at the last second and with no prior warning to their Coaliation allies to open the war with a "Hail Mary" airstrike intended to kill the ruler and his inner circle at the very outset of hostilities. The problem with this thinking is that it oversimplifies the true nature of the apparatus which has maintained a decades-long reign of terror in Iraq. Saddam's police state has myriad individuals who have benefitted enormously from oppressing the masses at the regional and local level, and consequently these people have an awful lot to lose in the event in "regime change". At best, they'd lose their livelihoods if Saddam were overthrown; at worst, they'd be tried and convicted as war criminals or lose their lives in a spate of revenge killings. And though I seriously doubt that such resistance will cost the United States the war, it will sour the sweet taste of victory. Already we're being warned by the same people who promised us a cakewalk to Baghdad that the road ahead may in fact be long and difficult. The more cynical of us already suspected as much, but would the American people have been so eager to sign on for this war if they had known that the Iraqis weren't just going to roll over and let us in, as many honestly believed they would do, once we'd shown them a little bit of "Shock and Awe"?

Warblogging is not easy, either. Nor is finding your way through the morass of data that this war is generating. I've found the following websites to be extraordinarily helpful during these extraordinary times in getting the information that American news organizations (at the behest of the Pentagon, yes, but also out of their own self-motivated fear of reprisals from "Middle America", and others who don't like to mix critical thought with their nightly news) are keeping us from:

Unlike their American counterparts, BBC reporters "embedded" in the field have been allowed to keep running blogs, which don't seem to be as censored as what goes out into the radio and television reports. Here's a daily roundup of all those posts. Kvetch all you want about the "Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation", Andrew Sullivan - the BBC provides one of the best English language news sources on the planet, and the world would be infinitely poorer without its much-needed perspective.

As for getting a radically different take on what's going on in Iraq right now, why not try Venik's Aviation, a Russian site that takes military analysts, radio intercepts from the Middle East, and other data being gathered from the conflict and attempts to peer through the "fog of war". Note: This link was working fine this morning, but now as I'm testing it out as I write this blog, I seem to be getting a server error.

And for a running commentary on all things Left, there is the indomitable Eschaton, which is updated frequently and furiously by Atrios.

I hope you find the above sites as useful as I have in keeping a grip on my sanity over the past few weeks!