This article in today’s WaPo, by Thomas Ricks is informative (and not so much because it is still pushing the idea, which he pontificated on days ago, that there has been a change in strategy) but because by carefully reading it you learn so much more than you could from some TV newsguy or commentator. Pay attention to the way he lays out what the Army really wants, how the Marines look at things, and how they want to push ahead faster than the Army and that is not necessarily a good thing (see what he says about the consequences of the Marine’s succesful push ahead of plans in the Gulf War). The point is not that you should necessarily agree with Ricks, but that this kind of reporting is thoughtful and, therefore, educational. And here is the Seymour Hersh article from last week’s The New Yorker that criticized Rumsfeld’s war plan, and of which so much has been made.