Today’s Washington Post has an analysis of the military situation by Vernon Loeb which I think is very fair (and balanced). Overall, the war is going remarkably well. The Pentagon’s plan has achieved spectacular advances, with relatively few casualties, and has extracted a tremendous price from the enemy for such harassment as they’ve been able to level. At the same time, more troops on the ground earlier on would have been a real help, given the early pressure on our supply lines. That seems right to me. This plan is a great overall success, for which the Pentagon and Secretary Rumsfeld (not to mention our spectacular soldiers) deserve high praise. But a relatively minor and correctable bump at the start teaches a lesson about the ongoing need for boots on the ground, even in a high tech world. Too bad that in this polarized environment, it’s been so hard for people to simultaneously acknowledge these dual truths.