The Haze Filter

The "After" Of The Above Photograph ::

Or, taking the photograph when the opportunity presents itself rather than waiting for the perfect light! Here's what the building in the header photograph looks like as of last week:

The big void on the left is where the window was with the old appliances in the background.

Robert McNamara ::

Try as I may I can't find a single good thing to say about McNamara on the occasion of his death:

There's this from McClatchy's Joseph Galloway:

Well, the aptly named Robert Strange McNamara has finally shuffled off to join LBJ and Dick Nixon in the 7th level of Hell.

McNamara was the original bean-counter — a man who knew the cost of everything but the worth of nothing.

Back in 1990 I had a series of strange phone conversations with McMamara while doing research for my book We Were Soldiers Once And Young. McNamara prefaced every conversation with this: "I do not want to comment on the record for fear that I might distort history in the process." Then he would proceed to talk for an hour, doing precisely that with answers that were disingenuous in the extreme — when they were not bald-faced lies.

Upon hanging up I would call Neil Sheehan and David Halberstam and run McNamara's comments past them for deconstruction and the addition of the truth.

The only disagreement i ever had with Dave Halberstam was over the question of which of us hated him the most. In retrospect, it was Halberstam.

Troop Deaths Escalate In Afghanistan ::

Reports are that 7 American service members were killed in Afghanistan today. I have a feeling that the Afghanistan escalation may prove to be far deadlier than Iraq has been to date. I hope I'm wrong, but this doesn't feel good. The emphasis should have been on winning against the Taliban in 2002 and 2003 when the Bush administration salivated over going into Baghdad.