Too bad, because it looks good: It’s no wonder that we can’t succeed in Iraq. Our war administrators get fooled by actors: In March, he was declared captured. In May, he was declared killed, and his purported corpse was displayed on state-run TV. But on Wednesday, Abu Omar Baghdadi, the supposed leader of an Al Qaeda-affiliated group in Iraq, was … Read More
Iraq: Senseless Brutality
This is no longer a war about saving the Iraqi people. This is about survival and revenge, and returning soldiers are telling the tale: Many of these veterans returned home deeply disturbed by the disparity between the reality of the war and the way it is portrayed by the US government and American media. The war the vets described is … Read More
Democracy Promotion?
‘Splain me this, Lucy. If the majority of Americans want the U.S. out of Iraq, and the majority of Iraqis want the U.S. out of Iraq, then isn’t it a bit of a joke that both the U.S. and Iraqi governments are even using the words "democracy promotion" these days?
I Caught About 30 Seconds Of The Bush Press Conference On Iraq
Man, does our president smirk a lot! And he smirks on all the wrong words. "Sectarian violence" — he smirked on that phrase. "Send more troops" — he smirked on that phrase. It’s really kind of creepy. But according to MSNBC, the White House report on Iraq cites success on 8 goals, failure on 8, mixed effort on 2, which … Read More
But, But, But…
ABC: Senior U.S. intelligence officials tell ABC News new intelligence suggests a small al Qaeda cell is on its way to the United States, or may already be here. But, but, but… I thought we were fighting them there so we wouldn’t have to fight them here. Does this mean we are losing? Anyway, rest assured. The Bush Administration is … Read More
This Is Getting Ridiculous
CNN: As President Bush faces GOP pressure to change his war strategy, the White House announced Tuesday that an upcoming progress report will result in "the beginning of a new way" in Iraq. Six months after announcing an increase of nearly 30,000 U.S. troops that became known as the "surge," Bush is scheduled to appear at a town meeting in … Read More
4,000
That’s the number of U.S. military casualties to date in Iraq and Afghanistan (3,596 in Iraq) since Bush started the "war on terra" 5 1/2 years ago, according to Bloomberg. AP adds, "All told, Congress has appropriated $610 billion in war-related money since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror assaults, roughly the same as the war in Vietnam. Iraq alone has … Read More
Religious Extremist Terrorists Attack U.S.
Think they only come from the religion of Islam? Try Christianity: Three Burleson men who belong to a “radical Christian activist group” were in the Johnson County Jail on Friday night after a church deacon caught two of them attempting to ignite an explosive device on Independence Day at a church under construction in north Burleson, authorities said Friday. Dayton … Read More
London Falling
…and that’s not all: A secret U.S. law enforcement report, prepared for the Department of Homeland Security, warns that al Qaeda is planning a terror "spectacular" this summer, according to a senior official with access to the document. "This is reminiscent of the warnings and intelligence we were getting in the summer of 2001," the official told ABCNews.com. And we … Read More
The Seventh Sense Cited In Law Journal Article
Got a nice bit of recognition from an article in The Legal Intelligencer, which you can read here. It’s a nice round-up of responses and observations relating to the al-Marri decision.
Gays In The Military: A Change In The Offing?
Today, the Service Members Legal Defense Network released a Pentagon statement that “includes the first language from Pentagon leaders suggesting that lesbian and gay service personnel should continue to use their skills in support of national security efforts, even after facing dismissal under the law.” The statement reads: These separated members have the opportunity to continue to serve their nation … Read More
Presidential Scholars Scholar President
God bless them, indeed: While meeting with a group of high school seniors from the Presidential Scholars program in the East Room of the White House, President Bush received an unexpected surprise: a letter signed by 50 of them urging Bush to halt “violations of the human rights” of terror suspects held by the United States. More: According to AP, … Read More
The Rhetorical Shift
They’re not al Qaeda, but the news calls them that anyway: As E&P has noted in the past week, the U.S. military has increasingly referred to insurgents in Iraq as "al-Qaeda fighters" or "Qaeda militants." When and why this is happening is not certain, although linking the insurgents to those who attacked us on 9/11 would appear to have certain … Read More
Who Takes Longer To Train….
…a Starbucks barista or a member of the Iraqi police? From NPR: For now, these men get only eight days of training and at the end of it, they get to keep their gun and their uniform. According to Aravosis, it takes seven days to complete training as a Starbucks barista. Which explains a lot. Meanwhile: The U.S. military on … Read More
Scalia Doesn’t Cite International Law; Cites Hollywood Instead
This guy is an idiot: Senior judges from North America and Europe were in the midst of a panel discussion about torture and terrorism law, when a Canadian judge’s passing remark – "Thankfully, security agencies in all our countries do not subscribe to the mantra ‘What would Jack Bauer do?’ " – got the legal bulldog in Judge Scalia barking. … Read More