Blackhawks Down --- Another US Blackhawk was shot down today, killing 6 American soldiers. A farmer who saw the incident said a missile (or rpg) hit the helicopter and split it in two. More on that story, from The Washington Post. It's another needless tragedy. The more soldiers we get into Iraq without a coherent plan for that country, the more sitting ducks we have on the ground. Every time I hear of another US soldier getting killed over there, it makes me shudder. I don't see any way out of this mess other than pulling out. To stay and "pacify" the region will take decades and billions of dollars and thousands of American lives. Meanwhile, Halliburton and other energy companies are making billions in profits from our Iraq Adventure, and the whole thing stinks to High Heaven.

Part of the problem with waging this "war" in Iraq, is that it is not a war at all. It never was and now it's devolved to regular attacks by guerrilla units. Saddam Hussein's army is gone and offered faint resistance anyway. As anyone who has played any combat games like Half-Life knows, mastering "sophisticated technology" (as it was termed this morning on NPR) like an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) takes about 5 minutes. A child could steer an RPG into a Blackhawk probably on the first or second attempt. That's the beauty of them: they are incredibly simple to use. Half-Life and other games use real-world physics models and accurate velocities on these weapons, so other than the weight of the weapon and any recoil, you've got the real deal online. The fact that we put 6 soldiers on a $45 Million helicopter that can be (and was) destroyed by a $3000 rocket, is lunacy. It's not dealing with reality. We are never going to have to face a real army in Iraq. There will never be columns of tanks rolling in to retake Baghdad airport. Bunching up and presenting big fat targets, like we're doing, is just plain stupid. We will not kill the enemy in numbers greater than twos or threes, and meanwhile, they shoot down helicopters with impunity.

As has already been stated here, this "war" is becoming more like Vietnam everyday. That war was unwinnable, and this "war" is also proving to be unwinnable. We should get out now, let the UN take over, and help rebuild Iraq instead of providing target practice for every insane Muslim in the world.

Our page counter website has been offline for 2 weeks now. How many of you are out there? Who are you? We don't know. We do know that we're over 10,000 visits to The Culture Bunker now, though, so thanks for hangin' tough, like the NKOTB.

The Strokes --- Are playing every Tuesday night in November on Conan O'Brien. If you're up at 12:35am watching TV, you've got worries.

Go Go Galaxy --- The MLS playoffs are underway, and the Galaxy beat San Jose 2-0 in the first leg. Read it here. Galaxy are the defending champions, by the way.

Sun Flares --- We've been having monster solar storms this week. Check out this amazing photo of the latest batch of solar flares, here.

Iraq Is Vietnam --- In an article on Tom Paine today, a former CIA analyst compares the recent downing of a US helicopter to an incident in Vietnam which allowed Johnson to begin the militarization of the conflict. It's sobering. Remember, after 58,000 dead GIs and 3 million dead Vietnamese, we withdrew.