From the Department of Diminishing Expectations

Yesterday I commented on what has become a weekly exercise in futility. Lil' Russ tap-danced around the issue by asking Senator Frist how things looked from the inside, of Iraq that is. Just peachy came the reply. No doubt Frist saw so much of the ravaged country from his hermetically sealed security bubble. So then Lil' Russ asked the panel, well, which is it? There's the offal masquerading as news from people like Frist, Lieberman, Rumsfeld, Bush, that tells us everything is fine vs. what do they call it? Let's see...NEWS.

There's the observations of sober experts like Scowcroft who says civil war is inevitable because of the elections not in spite of them. Trouble is, there's always the truth. But we don't see much of the truth on television. People like Lil' Russ are satisfied to sip the happy Kool-Aid from people like Frist. He's just going through the motions.

Let's show Lil' Russ some truth. First, Army Reserve General says we're screwed.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 - The Army Reserve is unable to meet its missions in Iraq and Afghanistan because of "dysfunctional" personnel policies that senior Army and Pentagon officials have refused to change, its top general has told senior Army leaders.

The officer, Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, said in a memorandum that the demands of overseas commitments combined with restrictive mobilization policies were hampering the Reserve's ability to fill such essential jobs as engineers, truck drivers and civil affairs specialists.

That isn't happy news folks. How about some more truth?

WASHINGTON - The strain of fighting a counter-insurgency war in Iraq (news - web sites), on a scale not foreseen even a year ago and with no end in sight, is taking a startling toll on the American military.

And while Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, a chief architect of the war, remains focused on his exit strategy — training Iraqis to provide their own defense, enabling U.S. troops to begin leaving — even he has recently used the term "bleak" to describe the situation.

Rumsfeld says he remains convinced that the only way out is to exercise patience and fortitude while a reliable Iraqi security force is developed. And U.S. military commanders in Iraq make almost daily pronouncements of optimism that the tide is beginning to turn against the insurgents.

None of this is good news, no matter how you cut it and that isn't even all of it. We now have the problem of officially acknowledged errant bombs. Not good for PR.

Hours before the attack, the United States acknowledged dropping a 500-pound bomb on the wrong house during a search for terror suspects outside the northern city of Mosul. The military said in a statement that five people were killed.

The house's owner, Ali Yousef, said 14 people died when the bomb hit at about 2 a.m. Saturday in Aitha, a town 30 miles south of Mosul. An Associated Press photographer at the scene said the dead included seven children and seven adults. The discrepancy between the death counts could not be reconciled.

And on the same day:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops opened fire near a checkpoint south of Baghdad after their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb and a hospital official said Sunday at least eight people were killed in the second American attack in two days to have deadly results.

And with all the optimism he can muster, here's Colin Powell defining success on This Week:

On Sunday, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) was asked on ABC's "This Week" how he would define success in Iraq (news - web sites)'s election, and he acknowledged concern about what will happen after the vote.

"Success is putting in place a government that is really elected and represents all of the people of Iraq ... and creating an Iraqi security force that is able to protect the country and protect the people of Iraq," he said.

Hey, wait a minute, is it my imagination, or have we come a long way down a very slippery slope since we kicked ass and declared the end of major combat operations? Get out the paper sacks and start breathing into it to help restore normal breathing.

The truth seems such an elusive concept. Should we expect to get it from the government? That might be asking too much. Is is too much to ask major news outlets to do their job? Lil' Russ, are you listening? We cannot put up with it anymore. We don't need any Happy Kool-Aid. We want the truth.