Congratulations, troops

By any honest estimation, we've won the war in Iraq. At every turn, liberals and "world opinion" have pronounced the effort doomed. At every milestone, the same voices said "well, that was the easy part, but now!..." Democracy may never be as robust in a tribal society like Iraq as it is in the republics of the West. It's still better that what they had before, and what they would have had if the defeatist claque had prevailed. The voices who wail over the civilian losses in this war never gave a good goddamn when it was Saddam killing innocents. The skeptics who rejected the premises of this war mostly thought that America deserved 9/11--them, we gotta listen to on national defense? Against all these choruses of evil and defeat stands the American fighting soldier, who I honor in this small way today, on Victory In Iraq Day.

Let's for a tank ride to celebrate:

It's all over but the shouting...

...which, according to San Francisco blogger zombie, will never come except from us bloggers. So let me join in a round of cheers for our troops, who for all intents and effects have won the war in Iraq. Even if he's mistaken, the troops richly deserve a round of applause, after all they've gone through and accomplished. Zombie proposes Saturday November 22nd as VI Day. I don't know why he picked the 45th anniversary of the assassination of JFK, but I'll go along with him. Mark your calendar, and watch his blog for a roundup of celebrations.

There's no question, people are war-weary; as the last two elections showed. But they still respect and admire the troops. Whenever I go to the Atlanta airport and there are soldiers disembarking, an eruption of applause comes up from the crowds. And this has been true from 2002 until now.

So yes, here's hoping the war is over, and here's my handful of virtual confetti, celebrating and honoring the troops for their sacrifice and hard work. Congratulations guys: we succeeded because we sent our very best.

NYT blows another secret operation's cover

Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda in Many Countries. They say it like that's a bad thing, no doubt due to the "R" behind the outgoing President's name.

Spare parts for Hubble Space Telescope

The wonderful old crate is getting yet another repair job. Smart thinking, to have a spare computer--the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling unit (SIC&DH-- in storage since 1991.

Hubble's images are part of astronomy lovers' inner furniture now. It's easy to forget that all those gorgeous images are the product of color enchancement--in visible light the cosmos isn't nearly so colorful. But the wealth of eye candy as well as scientific knowledge has done a lot to increase the appreciation of laypeople like me for the wonders of the universe. Long may HST fly.