The Pentagon types are insisting there is no pause in the advance on Baghdad. However, the press reports all indicate the units have stopped moving. I wonder if the spin was this bad in Vietnam. Not that I think things will get that bad in military terms...there's a lot different about this conflict. But still, it really aggravates me to hear the military brass compulsively lying about everything. With any luck, maybe Rumsfeld will get fired in all this.

I talked to a friend last night who was worried that the military's continual insistence that avoiding civilian areas is hurting the war effort could be a prelude to bombing civilian areas. Making excuses for their own miscalculations makes more sense, but she could easily be right. I sincerely hope we find some way to finish this off quickly. I remember in Afghanistan we started slowly, and then everything kind of crumpled at once. The same could happen here, realistically at any moment.

In other news, I finally stepped into the sublet world today. I'm not sure whether I'll live with friends or not...have begun sending out a couple of feelers to those likely to be here for the summer. And now I will begin my Persian mid-term, which looks like it might take awhile...