Kevin Drum asks: If anti-war liberals were right about the war from the start, how come they don’t get more respect? Here’s the nickel version of the answer from liberal hawks: It’s because they don’t deserve it. Sure, the war has gone badly, but not for the reasons the doves warned of. Is this true? I wish my memory were … Read More
Ungrateful Iraqis
On Sunday night, George W. Bush said: I think the Iraqi people owe the, the American people a huge debt of gratitude. That’s the problem, here in America. They wonder whether or not there is a gratitude level that’s significant enough in Iraq. And today we learn that: Nearly 35,000 civilians were killed last year in Iraq, the United Nations … Read More
Castro Death Watch
I think he’ll last until Thursday.
Is The Whole “Surge” Plan A Set-Up?
Andrew Sullivan wonders: This paragraph, buried by the NYT, leapt out at me this morning: A Shiite political leader who has worked closely with the Americans in the past said the Bush benchmarks appeared to have been drawn up in the expectation that Mr. Maliki would not meet them. "He cannot deliver the disarming of the militias," the politician said, … Read More
Troop Reaction To The Iraq Escalation
Having announced his "new" strategy on Iraq on national TV Wednesday, the Bush team needed a PR boost to show Americans that real Americans are in support of the Bush plan. They consulted the standard playbook, and placed President Bush in front of what they assumed would be a favorable rah-rah audience: the American soldiers. So off Bush went to … Read More
The Surge And The Surger: Adding More Deck Chairs To The Titanic
Time for me to weigh in seriously on the whole Iraq "surge" thing. Yes, I’m just another twitter in the cacophany of pundits, commenters, analysts, and armchair generals — but here I am. Now I didn’t see the speech (I heard a later recording) so I won’t comment on the theatrics of his delivery. I’ll leave that to Howard Fineman … Read More
40 Years Ago Today
Applause to Attytood for pulling this together — a comparison of LBJ’s State of the Union speech (given exactly 40 years ago today), and Bush’s speech tonight: LBJ, Jan. 10, 1967: We have chosen to fight a limited war in Vietnam in an attempt to prevent a larger war–a war almost certain to follow, I believe, if the Communists succeed … Read More
The Bush Speech Tonight
Sadly, No’s predictions (with checklist) is right on the monry: Yup. [ ] President walks out and makes the serious-and-earnest expression. [ ] First long section of speech is timeline of successes in the War on Terror which does not resemble any known sequence of events in the world. [ ] “But America is not yet safe,” says the President. … Read More
Zombie Soldiers
Bush wants to send an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq. Where will they come from? The dead, apparently: US Army urges dead to re-enlist The US Army is to apologise to the families of officers killed or wounded in action who were sent letters urging them to return to active duty. The letters were sent to more than 5,100 Army … Read More
Monty Python And The Holy War
Terry Jones — yes, that Terry Jones — has an interesting observation about the wasteful spending that is the Iraq War: Early this year the Bush administration is to ask Congress to approve an additional $100bn for the onerous task of making life intolerable for the Iraqis. This will bring the total spent on the White House’s current obsession with … Read More
Guess Who Just Came Out Against The “Surge” Idea?
Ollie North. Now, if Bush can’t hold Ollie North, he’s really out in left right field.
Eating Crow
It doesn’t get better than this: Packs of right-wing bloggers spent the last several weeks trying to destroy the credibility of Associated Press’s war reporting by claiming that one of its sources, an Iraqi policeman named Jamil Hussein, does not exist, that AP simply invented him. As it turns out — and as AP itself had the great pleasure of … Read More
Casey Is Out
Remember the Bush line that he spouted for most of 2006? "I’ll listen to my military leaders on the ground." Well, General George Casey, the top commander in Baghdad, has — for the past several weeks — urged withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Does Bush listen? Nope. He kicks Casey off.