Dead Civilians: Pardon me while I indulge some cynicism. CENTCOM is still saying that they're reasonably confident that the explosion in the marketplace in Iraq a few days ago was not caused by us. (I've heard some convincing arguments that they're right. Plus, I wonder why we were so accurate for a week, then suddenly missing by, literally, a mile.) It may turn out to be otherwise, but let that slide for a moment. Today comes this report of a similar occurence. The point to keep in mind here is that, no matter what CENTCOM says, this is getting a lot of play on al Jazeera. No matter where the explosion came from, it's a propaganda coup for Saddam. Thus, I smell a new Saddam strategy. I think he's begun to deliberately bomb his own city, knowing that it will get major play on Arab TV, with all fingers pointing to the Yankee jackals at the gates of the city. Another worry is the discovery of stockpiles of chem/bio gear in Iraq. The official Iraqi position is that the gear is needed for when the Allies use WMD on Iraq. This may be the preparation for the market bombing story writ in large, toxic letters. What Arab "news" outlet isn't itching to run the story on America chem bombing civilians? Like I said, this is a plainly a cynical analysis of stories just beginning to develop, but definitely a concern anyway.