Snow in Minnesota and a Raid into Syria

Yesterday was a really lazy day for me. It was snowing outside (gross, I know!) and I didn't really want to do much of anything... except maybe sit around and watch movies... brain mush. Anyway, I'm sitting and being lazy and my Chemistry major roommate turns to me and says- "you know, we invaded Syria?"

And, I'm thinking "what?!" as well as grumbling to myself that the one day I don't glance over the Times headlines, we invade another country completely unexpectedly. AND on top of all that my smug Chem-major roommate knows about it before me (it's kind of my job to know about these things- I'm majoring in International Relations and Poli Sci!)

She rubs it in: "Oh, I just thought you would know about it..."

Grumbling, I abandon the episode of "West Wing" I was so pleasantly watching and race for my laptop.
I open up the New York Times. The top headline was about baseball. Now, I'm thinking- hey! I did read the news earlier today! The top headline was about football before!
I come back in tell my roommate that she's full o' crap. Turns out she read it on the BBC. There, the article is titled "'US Helicopter Raid' Inside of Syria".

I had to scroll down half the page to the small printed links to find it in the Times: "Syrians Blame US for Deadly Blast on Iraq Boarder"

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but those are two different stories reporting entirely different things. I've searched the Times and there is no actual article just about the blast- I suppose it's only 'newsworthy' if the US gets 'blamed.' (This story got to the top of the website this morning- hmm, it finally beat out the 'Four Homers by the Phillies'?)

Enough about journalism, though. The idea that we can chase down 'terrorists' into other countries is absurd. That is the nature of guerrilla warfare, they can break the rules- they can attack us and retreat... but we can't break those rules (like the rules set by the boarders of Syria or, in another war, Pakistan!). Breaking the rules makes a statement, antagonizes the leaders and people... we're fighting a protracted 'War of the Flea', which we can't win by antagonizing the citizen base!

Ugh, read something military dudes!

On that note, also... to rant because I can.... and because this keeps coming up with the McCain campaign:
We did not lose the Vietnam war because of liberal, "Anti-Americans"- we lost because we were going to lose. We lost because we're a Democratic Republic and, as such, we have to answer to our population and thus are checked (ideally) from committing heinous crimes in other countries!
We lost because the other side had the experience and the will to fight a protracted war and we had no idea how to win.
I understand that it is an embarrassing chapter in American history. However, the military did not learn lessons from the war. Great books analyzing the situation were put aside for a game of 'blame the hippies' - and then, the military institution decide that the best way to deal with this kind of 'rules-less' war would be to just never get into one again.
Brilliant plan... and it would have worked too if it wasn't for those pesky NeoCons. Such a pain in the... uh.. face.

Alright, rant done.
I'm going to cut back on 'lazy days' even if it snows in October.

-RetroSweater out.

[UPDATE]: More info from the BBC. Rock on, BBC... even if your most read story is about a man getting stuck in a toilet.