CNN is now saying "no indictments expected today." Stop toying with my emotions, CNN.
Actually, all the news sources I just scanned are saying, in effect, "Indictments are not expected today unless Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald decides to release them. He's expected to announce them tomorrow unless he chooses not to, because the Grand Jury expires on Friday unless he decides to extend it — and oh, by the way, he could also take his case to a new Grand Jury." It all reminds me of a weatherman we once had on Los Angeles TV who'd practically say, "No rain is expected unless, of course, clouds roll in and water starts falling from the sky."
Newsman Jack Germond once said, approximately, "The trouble with news coverage is that we're not paid to say 'I don't know,' so we have to say we know even when we don't."
Even worse than the lack of any indictments — and remember, I'll settle for the indictment of anyone of any political stripe — is that we've hit 2,001 military deaths in Iraq. It's chilling because that number says so much and yet says so little. There's no measure in it of how many soldiers have been maimed or scarred for life, no measure of how many deaths have occurred in Iraq of both insurgents and totally innocent people. There are estimates out there but they vary wildly.
Of course, it's silly to place much emphasis on round numbers in something like this. Death #2000 was only worse than Death #1999 because it was one more. #2002 will be worse than #2001 in the same way. And to the people who knew and loved the fallen soldier, it won't be Death #2002. It'll be the death of Fred or Mike or Bob or whoever it is. That's another way in which the raw number is insufficient. It makes you forget those are people, not objects to be tallied and counted.
If we believe this poll, 53% of all Americans now believe the invasion of Iraq was a mistake as opposed to only 34% who believe it was the right move. I wonder if the folks in the 34% would have voted for this war if we'd all been able to vote and if we'd known how long it would last and how many deaths it would mean.