Lately, I’ve been reporting about the escalation of the Iraqi civil war, due to the Golden Dome mosque bombing earlier this week. Leave it to Karl Rove to spin the bombing into a good thing: SNOW: So you expect this [the bombing of the mosque] is going to strengthen the opposition to the terrorists? ROVE: I think it could. I … Read More
A Civil War By Any Other Name
The brass at the Pentagon "reject" the notion that a civil war is brewing. Well, I guess the Pentagon has to say that, although ex-Pentagon officials have been signing a different story for quite a while: “It’s just political rhetoric to say we are not in a civil war. We’ve been in a civil war for a long time,” said … Read More
This Is, Like, Bad
Relating to my earlier post about the bombing of the Golden Dome in Iraq, I think it is worth noting that Middle East expert Juan Cole says: The threat of terrorism and attacks on Americans just went way up. Read the whole thing.
Prediction
I think that in a few years’ time, we’ll look back on today’s Golden Dome bombing and recognize it as the spark that ignited the Iraqi Civil War (all capital letters). This was not some equivalent of a church bombing in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. To Iraqi Shiites, this is the equivalent of bombing St. Paul’s in New York, or the National … Read More
After Neoconservatism
Poltical types are abuzz about the editorial in yesterday’s NYT Magazine by Francis Fukuyama, spelling the death of — or at least the flaws revealed in — the neoconservative movement. It’s a heavy read, but interesting. Ex-neoconservative Andrew Sullivan weighs in: I have no doubt that Frank Fukuyama’s essay in the New York Times Magazine will prompt a lot of … Read More
Bush vs. Rumsfeld
Bush at Mission Accomplished: We are helping to rebuild Iraq where the dictator built palaces for himself instead of hospitals and schools. Rumsfeld, today: We’re not there to do nation-building. Glad we’re all on the same page.
Another Law Being Broken?
Department Of Defense Directive 1344.10, Section E3.3.9 (August 2, 2004) states that an armed services member on active duty shall not: …Participate in any radio, television, or other program or group discussion as an advocate for or against of a partisan political party, candidate, or cause. Today, Robert Novak writes: At the same time, the Bush administration is going directly … Read More
Blogger Do-Gooders
The story hit liberal AMERICABlog this morning. First Lt. William "Eddie" Rebrook IV, 25, suffered severe injuries when he was struck by a roadside bomb one year ago in Iraq. Because of his injuries, Rebrook left the Army recently, returning home last Friday. Upon his discharge, he learned that the Army billed him $700 for the "lost" body armor that … Read More
Trick Question
MyDD commissioned a poll. One of the questions was this: Q14. Given events since the invasion, do you support the decision to maintain a U.S. combat force of over 100,000 troops in Iraq for the next few years? All Dem Rep … Read More
They LOVE Us!
A new poll found that nearly half of Iraqis approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and most favor setting a timetable for American troops to leave.
Mmmm. Who Should I Believe?
Gosh, I’m in a quandary. First, there’s this Pentagon study: Stretched by frequent troop rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has become a "thin green line" that could snap unless relief comes soon, according to a study for the Pentagon. Then there’s Donald "There Are Known Knowns And Known Unknowns, But We Know Where The WMDs Are (They’re Just … Read More
The Incompetent President
Focusing primarily on Bush’s disasterous Medicare program, WaPo’s editorialist Harold Meyerson has a few words to say: Incompetence is not one of the seven deadly sins, and it’s hardly the worst attribute that can be ascribed to George W. Bush. But it is this president’s defining attribute. Historians, looking back at the hash that his administration has made of his … Read More
How Do You Mend A Broken Army?
“Stretched by frequent troop rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has become a “thin green line” that could snap unless relief comes soon, according to a study for the Pentagon.” That’s not good. But Rick Santorum has a solution: “What I am asking all of you tonight, is not to put on a uniform. Put on a bumper sticker. … Read More
Jill Carroll Letter From Baghdad
As you know, today is supposedly the "deadline" set by the captors of Jill Carroll, the American journalist being held hostage in Iraq. I am not optimistic about the outcome of this unfortunate event. This is from Carroll’s "Letter From Baghdad" written last year, about why she went there as a freelance journalist in the first place: Only a story … Read More
The Fatalities You Don’t Hear About
In my right-hand column, I have a little thingee reporting the current number of U.S. soldiers killed and injured in Iraq to date. Don’t be fooled by the numbers, people. The casualty toll is actually higher. The numbers, for example, don’t take into account people like Specialist Douglas Barber, an Iraqi War veteran who suffered from PTSD. Douglas Barber walked … Read More