AP: Determined to challenge President Bush, Senate Democrats are drafting legislation to limit the mission of U.S. troops in Iraq, effectively revoking the broad authority Congress granted in 2002, officials said Thursday. While these officials said the precise wording of the measure remains unsettled, one draft would restrict American troops in Iraq to combating al-Qaida, training Iraqi army and police … Read More
Terrorist Supports GOP
Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari pled not guilty in a Manhattan federal court last Friday, denying charges that he’s a terrorist financier. But that’s a matter in some dispute, and not just by the prosecutors. According to The Blotter at ABC News.com, the indictment charges that he arranged for $152,000 worth of bank transfers to fund a terror training camp. … Read More
Britain No Longer Our BFF
They’re pulling out of Iraq.
Iraq 101
You don’t know the difference between a Sunni and a Shia, do you. Admit it — you don’t. That’s okay — you’re in good company (the head of the House Intelligence Committee didn’t know either). Seriously, Iraq is complicated. Which is why I recommend this piece by Mother Jones, specifically written to get everybody (myself included) up to speed on … Read More
The Cost Of Iraq To North Carolinians
According to the National Priorities Project… Taxpayers in North Carolina will pay $12.3 billion for the cost of the Iraq War through 2007. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided: 2,549,652 People with Health Care or262,688 Elementary School Teachers or1,664,717 Head Start Places for Children or5,677,670 Children with Health Care or116,816 Affordable Housing Units or1,358 … Read More
Support The Troops
Yuck: [P]art of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When [he] stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up … Read More
The Murtha Move
Brilliant. Just brilliant. Anytime a Democrat expresses opposition to the Iraq War (and, in current terms, the Bush plan to escalate the number of U.S. troops in Iraq), that Democrat is accused of not "supporting the troops". Senator John Murtha, a combat veteran, has long opposed the war in Iraq, and now he has a bill which puts Bush in … Read More
What Does The House Non-Binding Resolution In Opposition To The Escalation In Iraq Have In Common With “Wicked”?
54 percent. That’s the number of Americans who would vote to cut off funding for President Bush’s escalation plan if they were in Congress, according to a Fox News poll. So while most Americans simply want to STOP the escalation, the Senate cannot even engage in a debate about whether or not to pass a non-binding resolution voicing opposition to … Read More
The Iraq Debate
Sadly, it seems that congressional Democrats, having long opposed the war and now in a position to end it, are not going to pull the pursestrings. The anti-war position has always had a difficult time, because the standard meme is "Yes, the war was fucked up in its conception, but we’re there now. If we leave Iraq now, the country … Read More
The Iran Debate
I second Publius’ well-thought-out critique of the "credible threat" tactic we are imposing on Iran. Publius’ point, in a nutshell, is that by publicly insisting that we are keeping all our options open with respect to Iran — particular the invasion option — we are encouraging Iran to seek deterrent weapons (i.e., nuclear weapons), not discouraging them. The impetus to … Read More
The Show “24” Endangers Our Troops
If anyone has ventured into the conservative blogosphere, they’ll soon discover one thing: conservatives love the show "24". To them, it’s not just a TV show — it reflects the gung-ho way that America should be fighting the war on terrorism. In September, Laura Ingraham justified torture techniques by pointing to the show. Around the same time, Glenn Beck did … Read More
Feel Safe?
Who is running this show? The FBI lost 160 laptop computers in less than four years, including at least 10 that contained highly sensitive classified information and one that held "personal identifying information on FBI personnel," according to a new report released today. The bureau, which has struggled for years to get a handle on sloppy inventory procedures, also reported … Read More
Dangers Of Pullout May Be Delusional
Pardon the extensive quote, but Steven Chapman’s editorial nails — I mean, nails — everything I’ve always thought and said about Iraq: Hard-core supporters of the war, no longer able to pretend that we are making progress toward a stable, democratic Iraq, have fallen back to their last line of defense — insisting that no matter how bad things are … Read More
Save The Cheerleader, Save Iraq
From The Washington Post: Gen. David H. Petraeus, the new U.S. commander in Iraq, is assembling a small band of warrior-intellectuals — including a quirky Australian anthropologist, a Princeton economist who is the son of a former U.S. attorney general and a military expert on the Vietnam War sharply critical of its top commanders — in an eleventh-hour effort to … Read More
Patience
Today’s headline: US military calls for patience in Iraq, ABC News Headline, 2/5/07 See also: Bush urges patience with Iraq war plan – ABC News headline, 1/24/07 Rumsfeld pleads for patience in Iraq – ABC News headline, 12/9/06 Election looming, U.S. general urges Iraq patience – Reuters headline, 11/2/06 After Iraq Visit, an Upbeat Bush Urges Patience – NYT headline, … Read More