Sunday Morning

Atrios wonders why we invaded Iraq, so do I, I also wonder why we invaded Afganistan, particularly if we didn't plan to fix it after we won it. Things are not better in the world, no matter what Bu$hCo says. The facts just do not support the b.s. foaming from his mouth. I live in the woods, far from the urban life, the large targets, the close proximity to packed subways. & yet, it's clear that I will not, in the rest of my sorry lifetime, be able to go to places that I've thought about since I was a kid - the general Middle East, for one area. Now, I'm not wealthy, so it could be argued that I wouldn't have gone anyway, but for me, the possibility was what made some days bearable, some daydreams interesting. Being reality based, however, even with that brief incident a while back, means that facts have meaning, meaning that can't be twisted for politcal gain. Yet, we have Joanne Weintraub, entertainment writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel give a glowing review of ABC's atrocity of a film, The Path To 9/11. She mentions, barely, the fact that the film has serious factual problems. But that's OK she says, just enjoy it as a drama, a piece of fluff to help with boredom, with the Packer's season. But she fits right in with Bu$hCo's view of the world. The Los Angeles Times does its job a bit differently. In this story Doyle McManus discusses what the supporters of war won't - that it's way more complicated than starting a vanity war in Iraq.

• Al Qaeda, the initial focus of the "global war on terror," has been disrupted and dispersed. But it has been succeeded by a looser network of affiliates and homegrown terrorists — like those who carried out bombings in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005 — who could grow to be just as dangerous.

• The war in Iraq has become a training ground for Islamic extremists from Saudi Arabia and other countries, and some have returned home with expertise in urban warfare and explosives. Some experts fear the Persian Gulf's oil terminals could be among their next targets.

• Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon have damaged the image of the U.S. in much of the Muslim world and made it easier for terrorist organizations to win recruits. The wars and controversies over U.S. treatment of detainees also have made it more difficult for allied governments to cooperate with American counterterrorism programs, diplomats say.

• When Foreign Policy magazine surveyed more than 100 experts earlier this year, 84% said they did not believe the United States was winning the war on terrorism. In a Los Angeles Times poll, fewer than one-fourth of Americans said they believed the nation was "winning"; more than half said it was too soon to tell.