It was ticking pretty loudly by Sept. 10, 2001, then stopped, and now it's getting louder. I'm talking about the Fire Rumsfeld Countdown. Phil Carter notes the significance of former Pentagon officials -- who are in a position to know (unlike me) -- in their criticism of the post war Iraq tribulations.

And the criticism doesn't end with Rumsfeld. It seems that Paul Bremer and his civilian administration are despised by the grunts on the ground. Juan Cole quotes an email from a soldier in Iraq that was sent to the Australian program, AM. Juan has the same problem I have getting links to individual posts (Blogger only links back to a month's worth of archives), so I'll quote, but his blog is always interesting.

"The same report says a soldier at the al-Rasheed Hotel sent them an email that is scathing about the civilian Bremer administration. He said that the civil administrators are chasing skirts and 'hooking up with nice-looking gals from US and Iraq,' and that they worry about 'running out of Coke and Diet Coke to go with their steak and crab leg dinner.' Meanwhile, the soldiers 'look like hobo's and live like pigs'. AM paraphrases, 'Those within the Mr [sic.] Bremer's authority have created a sterile ivory castle that distorts their view of the country.' The message signs off, 'there's no Iraqi representation at the levels making decisions on Iraq's future. The message we are sending is pretty confusing to the Iraqis. Their provisional government even has to come to Saddam's old palace for meetings. Go figure.'"

I am no expert on Viet Nam, but I know enough to sense deja vu.

It also seems that the UN has no appetite for working with Bremer, either. Besides, even if the UN does agree to provide aid, they're not going in unless the security situation improves. And with US troops stretched thin already, that doesn't seem to be a near term situation.

Oh, and $1.7 billion and $680 million. Respectively, that's the estimated value of Gulf War II contracts awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to Haliburton, and the Gulf War II contracts awarded by the U.S. Agency for International Development to Bechtel, Haliburton's chief competitor. The governments of France and Germany (and the UK, I would think), must be thrilled by that.

Juan also has some interesting insights on John Kerry and his so-called "waffling" on Iraq. If Kerry is waffling, then a lot of us have been. I supported ousting Saddam, I just thought the way the Bush administration went about it was insane, specifically, 1.) hyping the WMD, when everyone pretty well figured the nonsense about being 45-minutes from a mushroom cloud was bogus; 2.) creating a link between Saddam and al qaeda, which they knew -- they knew -- didn't exist; 3.) failing to make an honest effort to get a UN mandate and broader international support; 4.) not having enough troops to go in, not planning for security following the collapse of Baghdad, and attempting to do everything on the cheap. I think that's what Kerry is saying and I think that's about right.

Of course, regarding point #2, politically it may not have been a mistake. Many people still believe the road to the World Trade Center was through Iraq.

Maureen Dowd must be reading my blog. [ed. You're nuts. You have never used the word "jejeunicity."

Listening to the latest gyrations of Bush and Rumsfeld (where's Cheney these days?), I keep thinking of the Neil Young and Crazy Horse song that they perform in the great, great movie about the band, "The Year of the Horse," directed by Jim Jarmusch. The song's title? "You're a Fuck Up!"

Speaking of which, here's a great interview of Paul Krugman (I couldn't find a permalink, so if you can't find it, it will be in the archives for the week of Sept. 1, I'm guessing).