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
Just When I Start To Warm Up To Her…
…she goes and says something like this: "It’s a horrible prospect to ask yourself, ‘What if? What if?’ But if certain things happen between now and the election, particularly with respect to terrorism, that will automatically give the Republicans an advantage again, no matter how badly they have mishandled it, no matter how much more dangerous they have made the … 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
America To The Rescue
I think much of this was lost on the audience, but this is brilliant. Jon Stewart talks about U.S. intervention in the Middle East over the past 3 decades and our absurd policies where we provide billions of money, arms, and military training to people who later become our mortal enemies. Bin Laden? Yeah, the U.S. gave him guns and … 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
Alden Pyle
I haven’t read Graham Greene’s "The Quiet American" (nor seen the relatively recent Michael Caine movie), but from what I gather, the main character is named Alden Pyle. He’s a government agent, living and working in Saigon, with a lot of idealistic patriotism, which manifests itself as naivete. While not a villian, Alden Pyle (played by Brandon Fraser in the … Read More
Historians/Experts Weigh In On The Iraq-Vietnam Analogy
Continuing from this below, in which Bush uses the Vietnam-was-a-mistake model to promote his Iraq strategy, the experts weigh in: Not surprisingly, they’re not impressed. Historian Robert Dallek, who has written about the comparisons of Iraq to Vietnam, accused Bush of twisting history. “It just boggles my mind, the distortions I feel are perpetrated here by the president,” he said … Read More
Bush By The Numbers
Aside from his pathetic Vietnam analogy, Bush’s Iraq speech today contained this little tidbit: “In Iraq, our troops are taking the fight to the extremists and radicals and murderers all throughout the country. Our troops have killed or captured an average of more than 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists and other extremists every month since January of this year.” (Applause.) Let’s … Read More
The Vietnam Lesson
The White House is mounting a new PR ploy to bolster support for Bush’s Iraq war policy. Speaking to various veterans’ groups today and tomorrow, the new PR ploy will draw comparisons between the wars in Iraq and Vietnam. It’s a bit odd, seeing as how in the past Bush has argued against the comparison on numerous occassions, saying it’s … Read More