"Give your driver your 9mm, and carry their M16/M4"

Jeff Taylor | January 11, 2005

The New Yorker offers must-read detail on just how the Army's officer corps is dealing with Iraq. No surprise that informal, not-by-the-book information exchange has proven to be of tremendous value for the officers commanding companies in combat:

The younger officers have another advantage over their superiors: they grew up with the Internet, and have created for themselves, in their spare time, a means of sharing with one another, online, information that the Army does not control. The "slackers" in the junior-officer corps are turning out to be just what the Army needs in the chaos of Iraq. Instead of looking up to the Army for instructions, they are teaching themselves how to fight the war. The Army, to its credit, stays out of their way.

You might feel better about the Iraq mess after reading the entire piece, or you might feel sick over the waste of it all. I'm still up in the air myself.