David Scott Marley has a weblog I'd recommend to y'all. He writes well, and care-fully.

Hundreds of thousands of people are going through hell there, and the vast majority on both sides are probably people who I'd like just fine if I sat down with them and shot the breeze for a half hour sometime over a cup of coffee or a beer. This is all so terribly wrong.

It was so damned unnecessary that our soldiers be put in this position at all. Every step of the way here was unnecessary for us to take; nothing was calling to us along this path but the greed and xenophobia and egotism and desire for control and craving for power that poisoned Saddam Hussein's heart and poisons the hearts of our own leaders as well. And hundreds of thousands of lives have been needlessly damaged and destroyed for it.

Talking about people named Scott (not DSM, another one): if you want to call me a coward for being shocked at the scale of civilian casualties, then just stop reading. I don't write this for you.