Last month, seven U.S. soldiers in Iraq penned an op-ed for the New York Times entitled "The War As We Saw It". The article itself is behind the NYT’s subscription wall, but you can read it (free) here. Here’s part of what they said: To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can … Read More
Petraeus Asked: Does Victory In Iraq Make Us Safer?
Supposedly, the whole war in Iraq is so that America will be safer. So Senator John Warner (R-VA) cuts to the chase: WARNER: I hope in the recesses of your heart that you know that strategy will continue the casualties, stress on our forces, stress on military families, stress on all Americans. Are you able to say at this time, … Read More
Obama At The Patraeus Hearings
Nailed it. I’ll try to get video up once it makes its way to Youtube.
About General Patraeus And The Surge
An elderly man with back pain goes to see a chiropractor. During the examination the old fella seizes up and dies. The chiropractor calls the family and tells them the bad news, but assures the grieving relatives that with additional visits he should be able to align the old man’s spine.
The Long-Awaited Patraeus Report
FIRST: Bush tells the American people to wait for General Patraeus’s report so we can have an assessment of the situation in Iraq. He says this repeatedly. NEXT: In the meantime. we get reports and data from the National Intelligence Estimate, the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Research Service, the U.S. Embassy, and the Independent Commission on the Security Forces … Read More
“We’re Kicking Ass”
Embarrassing: "We’re kicking ass," he told Mark Vaile on the tarmac after the Deputy Prime Minister inquired politely of the President’s stopover in Iraq en route to Sydney. We need a President who doesn’t talk like a 13 year old raving about a new video game. Oh, and a President who can grasp reality: As for the “substance” (I use … Read More
The New Iraq Policy
Reboot.
Fuzzy Math
Everyone’s talking about this graph, created by this guy, drawing data from Pentagon reports. The blue line tracks the level of Iraq violence as indicated in the Pentagon’s August 2006 report. The pink line tracks the level of Iraq violence as indicated in the Pentagon’s November 2006 and March 2007 reports. The yellow line tracks the level of Iraq violence … Read More
Iraq’s WMD Finally Found In New York City; Will Bush Invade the Upper East Side?
Yup. They’ve been in a storage closet at the United Nations since 1996. Flashback to March 2003: MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, weapons of mass destruction. Key goal of the military campaign is finding those weapons of mass destruction. None have been found yet. There was a raid on the Answar Al-Islam Camp up in the north last night. A lot of … Read More
Irrational Fear Of Olive-Skinned People
When you have people like Michelle Malkin and Sean Hannity whipping up frenzy about Muslims in general, and telling Americans to be "on guard" against terrorist plots, it’s not surprising that things like this happen: A conflict between passengers at Lindbergh Field Tuesday night caused the overnight delay of an American Airlines flight headed to Chicago. Hmmm. A conflict. What … Read More
Progress In Iraq?
No, actually. Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report. The document questions whether some aspects of a more positive assessment by the White House last month adequately reflected the range of views the GAO found within the administration. Read … Read More
Historian Pounces On Bush
Not literally, of course (although that would be a great Youtube moment) In Wednesday’s speech Bush said: "’An interesting observation, one historian put it, ‘Had these erstwhile experts’ — he was talking about people criticizing the efforts to help Japan realize the blessings of a free society — he said, ‘Had these erstwhile experts had their way, the very notion … Read More
Bush’s Biggest Rhetorical Blunder?
Jim Hoagland thinks so: Desperate presidents resort to desperate rhetoric — which then calls new attention to their desperation. President Bush joined the club this week by citing the U.S. failure in Vietnam to justify staying on in Iraq. Bush’s comparison of the two conflicts rivals Richard Nixon’s "I am not a crook" utterance during Watergate and ‘s "I did … Read More
Is The Surge Working?
No: Violence Metrics June/July2006 June/July2007 Change Iraqi Military and Police Killed 349 429 Up 23% Multiple Fatality Bombings 110 82 Down 25% # Killed in Mult. Fatality Bombings 885 1,053 Up 19% Iraqi Civilians Killed(All violent causes) 6,739 5,300 Hard to say1 U.S. Troop Fatalities 104 187 Up 80% U.S. Troops Wounded 983 1,423 Up 45% Size of Insurgency 20,000+ … Read More
Intelligence Agency Report: Iraq Strategy Is Failing
Bush and his supporters keep saying the "surge" is working, and that if we just wait for the reports from General Patreus and Ambassador Crocker next month (which the White House will write), then we’ll see that everything is okay. But of course, we don’t have to wait until next month. The Iraqi government will become more precarious over the … Read More