[WOSG]

"we knew that resistance was going to be light in the south"

As Rumsfeld has pointed out, we DONT KNOW that, and we didnt know it. Nothing about the future is "knowable". It is all speculation.

Enough of this media echo chamber of demanding speculation, then assuming it is knowledge and then demanding heads roll when 'expectations' that are unreasonable were not met.

We DID KNOW that war is uncertain. We do know Saddam would play tricks. He has. Leaving fedayeen in southern Iraq should NOT be unexpected, since he organized many thousands of them. Fortunately, his tricks wont change the outcome and have inflicted only a few casualties so far. His WMD may be played - it may not. The "urban stalingrad" card maybe played, maybe not. WE DONT KNOW.

We do know that victory is certain because our will and our strength is overwhelming. That is ALL we know.

[Archangelsk]

As Rumsfeld has pointed out, we DONT KNOW that, and we didnt know it. Nothing about the future is "knowable". It is all speculation.

This is what happens when people believe that all U.S. military intelligence and area study began on Jan 20, 2001. Trust me on this, all the War Colleges, the Center for Strategic Studies and every other military think tank have been focused on this nut since the end of Desert Storm. We knew perfectly well what the climate was in the south and we also knew that Saddam had learned a couple of lessons from Desert Storm, Kosovo, Somalia etc. We also have an intelligence infrastructure in place that has cost you, me and the rest of U.S. tax payers untold billions of dollars to collect, analyze and report information of vital national security interest.

No, we knew and reported. However, what the receiver (or customer) hears and decides to do is a horse of an entirely different hue.