There's finally admission from wounded US soldiers that the Iraqis were offering tougher resistance than expected. Now it looks like everyone is bracing for a longer war. No more is it going to be a short and sharp war through 'shock and awe' tactics.

Americans, like what they experienced in Vietnam, always have to go to war with certain handicaps. They have to avoid civilian casualties, they cannot bomb non-military infrastructures and they have to be accountable for any mistakes made. The Iraqis are fully exploiting these. It is a war with a forgone conclusion: against a vastly superior coalition force, it is not one that Iraq can win. But a successful war for the US and its allies are measured by different standards.

Maybe such standards are unrealistic to begin with. And perhaps the Americans have to blame themselves for not setting expectations right from the very beginning.