Both Sides Now

War child, victim of political pride.
Plant the seed, territorial greed.
Mind the war child,
We should mind the war child.
--War Child, The Cranberries
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Ranger's Definition of Terror:
The use of violence by any group for any purpose
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President's Day Song:
All: We are the mediocre presidents.
You won't find our faces on dollars or on cents!
There's Taylor, there's Tyler, There's Fillmore and there's Hayes.
There's William Henry Harrison,
Harrison: I died in thirty days!
All: We... are... the... Adequate, forgettable,
Occasionally regrettable
Caretaker presidents of the U-S-A!
--The Simpsons
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The WaPo human interest piece ("The Man on Both Sides of Air War Debate") would have us know that Marc Garlasco, crack Pentagon MI analyst, understands what it feels like to be on both sides of a bomb strike.

A highly informed expert on directing airstrikes in Afghanistan and Iraq, Garlasco "really felt violated" when the Pentagon -- where he was working at the time -- was hit in 2002. But he did not support the war with Iraq, and left his Defense Intelligence gig to join Human Rights Watch in 2003 following the failed bombing attempt on Ali Hassan Majeed, known as Chemical Ali, which he helped engineer.

Standing at the edge of the crater two weeks later where 17 civilians were instead killed, Garlasco saw "this bunny-rabbit toy covered in dust nearby, and it tore me in two," Garlasco said. "I had been a part of it, so it was a lot harder than I thought it would be." I'd wager it was a lot harder yet on the people whose lives he helped destroy.

"It really dawned on me that these aren't just nameless, faceless targets. This is a place where people are going to feel ramifications for a long time."

The piece notes Garlasco is "that rare breed of human rights activist who is also a member of the National Rifle Association. " Why must it be that someone who values his Second Amendment rights would also be incautious in the employment of those weapons? Owning a gun does not de facto make a person aggressive. These divisions rend the world, and I'd venture that not Iraq and Afghanistan alone will feel the ramifications for a long time.

"A senior Army interrogator who worked closely with Garlasco said he was intimidated by how much Garlasco knew about Iraq, finding it almost scary how he could lay out a map of Baghdad and describe every building in detail, even though he had never been there."

It is a given that U.S. intelligence can describe every building in detail in Baghdad, but that surely is a meaningless fact. Bombing is useless without good intelligence, and maps of buildings don't qualify as good intelligence. That is akin to having an OnStar guidance system in your Humvee. Good intelligence is gathering, evaluating and disseminating credible information, such as that which might keep you out of stupid phony war.

After all, it is the hearts and minds that matter, or so say the COIN experts. And nobody in the U.S. command structure has a clear view of that terrain.