A clarification on today’s festivities in Samarra:

I’ve received several emails this morning from people wondering why we’ve launched a “massive bombing campaign” in Iraq. And they’re saying, “won’t that kill a lot of innocent civilians?” But they are confused by the term, “air assault.”

An “air assault” is actually a helicopter-borne infantry assault. In this case, large numbers of helicopters are ferrying airborne-infantry soldiers to enemy targets.