<Rumsfeld is right, even if his understatement may be irritating.

Irritating??? He's broadcasting as a representative of the American Administration!!! "Untidiness" is no way to characterize robbery, destruction and violence.

If he wants to characterize journalists' questions in a dismissive manner, fine. He has to deal with them on a daily basis. He has no call and no right to refer to the suffering in Iraq in a cavalier manner.

If he can't watch his mouth, he had better close it.

This behavior is typical of these situations, and will subside.

I'll be curious to see if a similar philosophy will govern the next outbreak of "typical" riots and looting in the United States. As I recall, our usual response to lawless behavior here is the application of law, through armed force if necessary.

How sad, that apparently it's only OK to smite the enemies of America rather than the enemies of justice, and the enforcement of freedom does not extend past rhetoric into practical areas like civic safety. Or maybe, with sufficient yelling, this approach is being modified so that the wake of American troop movements will look more like that of liberated communities and less like the passage of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Iraqis can be simultaneously glad that Saddam is gone and furious with the Americans for what follows his removal. The world is complicated. You might even say it's ... untidy.

Regards--
Mary Anne