Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Hope and Sorrow

In Mosul, the enemy managed to drop some explosives on a mess tent and killed a number of people including more than a dozen American soldiers. On occasion, our enemies will get lucky like that.

The same article noted something that provides hope, given that war critics like to paint Mosul as the "new Fallujah." The article noted that a police post in Mosul withstood an insurgent assault. Indeed, it was the sixth assault to be repulsed since the collapse of the Iraqi police force in Mosul last month. [I looked for the original but couldn't find it--the link above is to a more complete article about the Mosul attack.]

More interesting is that this detail was shed from the report even as the bad news was expanded. Personally, while I grieve our dead from the attack, such things happen in war. The fact that Iraqi police are withstanding attacks on their posts is a significant fact of the war that should be noted.