How To Read War Reporting

When the press was calling Iraq a "quagmire" 15 minutes into our invasion, I called my personal military expert (my brother the vet) to ask what he thought. He gave me a simple rubric: if we're advancing, we are winning. If we are retreating, they are. I find it's very useful to read war reporting with that in mind. Ignore how the reporter characterizes the fighting --the first three reports are wrong; just note who advances and who retreats.