Here’s a passage from Sgt. Thomas Strickland, a U.S. soldier serving in Iraq, from his blog earlier this month: What the fuck has my chain of command been doing? We were winning somewhat when I left. And now we’re being pinned down in our own fucking homes? Insurgents are pushing locals out of their homes and taking over my area … Read More
Classic Definition Of A ‘Quagmire’
Who said this: "For the U.S. to get involved militarily in determining the outcome of, uh, the struggle over who’s going to govern Iraq, strikes me as a classic definition of a ‘quagmire’." Answer: Dick Cheney Crooks & Liars has the audio (from an NPR interview conducted in 1991), if you don’t believe me.
An Open Letter To Mr. Prager
Dear Mr. Prager: It’s kind of easy to win a debating point when you get to speak for *both* sides of the debate, as you’ve done in your latest piece. It allows you to misprepresent the position of your opponent, who is not there to correct you. (Do you now see why some liberals refer to the right wing media … Read More
From An Iraq Veteran
Via The Green Knight: [T]he only way that we can maintain our way of life is to have a strong defense…. And we had that before we started this little adventure here. Now we’re beginning to eat it up….The equipment and the people are getting chewed up and spat out. And that’s not the right way to defend our country….. … Read More
Stupid Neo-Con Logic
This is the mind-numbingly stupid thing that columnist Lorie Byrd actually wrote (apparently, in earnest), at Townhall: What is rarely, if ever, addressed by the opponents of President Bush and the current war is whether or not the decision he made was a correct one if everything we thought about the status of Saddam’s WMD capability had been correct. In … Read More
Bush’s AIDS/Africa Policy
Bush likes to talk about how he is helping fight AIDS in Africa by, among other things, "build[ing] the health system capacity" there. Yeah, right. Bush’s war against AIDS in Africa has a strong enemy: Bush himself. Like his approach to terrorism, Bush’s unreality-based views of the world are merely prolonging the problem he seeks to prevent: A senior United … Read More
“More Costly Than The War To End All Wars”
That’s what the Christian Science Monitor says about Iraq. And yes, that’s adjusted for inflation: Despite the relatively small number of American armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan (140,000), the war effort is rapidly shaping up to be the third-most expensive war in United States history. This conflict has already cost each American at least $850 in military and reconstruction … Read More
Punishing Competence
What happens if you actually do your job, and the result is a potential embarrassment to the Bushies? You get demoted: A top Army contracting official who criticized a large, noncompetitive contract with the Halliburton Company for work in Iraq was demoted Saturday for what the Army called poor job performance. The official, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, has worked in military … Read More
Reality TV Comes To Iraq
From the New York Times: Reality TV could turn out to be the most durable Western import in Iraq. It has taken root with considerably greater ease than American-style democracy. Since spring 2004, when "Materials and Labor" made its debut, a constellation of reality shows has burst onto TV screens across Iraq. True to the genre, "Materials and Labor" has … Read More
Pro-Bush Supporters Attack Themselves
Protest Warriors is a conservative activist group. Their tradmark is to show up at progressive rallies posing as liberals and carrying signs that say things like: "Communism has killed only 100 million people; let’s give it another chance!" and "The ACLU – we don’t hate religions – we just hate Christianity!" Get it? Because people will read the signs and … Read More
Operation Yellow Elephant In Action
Hats off and kudos to this kid who went to a meeting of college Republicans, passing out recruitment fliers (you know, because Bush has called for sacrifice, and because the military news people. He filmed it. Best part is when he is chastized: One thing you’re missing the point on… there are some people..and you need to be more sensitive … Read More
That’s Why We’re Fighting?
Here’s what they’re saying at RedState about the rationale for the war (hey, at least somebody’s saying it: The black-and-white, "get the bad guys" approach can be heard from the Democrats and their allies in the MSM and the American left. They are the ones with the GET OBL! mentaility, as if removing the main bad guys will solve the … Read More
An Anti-Sheehan Pro-Bush Protester
From this week’s list of Top Ten Conservative Idiots at Democratic Underground:
Clark On Withdrawal
Gen. Wesley Clark makes the case for withdrawal from Iraq, but (unlike others calling for military withdrawal) provides a roadmap on hos to fix the mess. Required reading below the fold.
This Can’t Be Good
From Reuters: BAQUBA, Iraq (Reuters) – Thousands marched in adoring praise of Iraq’s deposed leader Saddam Hussein on Friday, offering a stark display of the loss of power and leadership felt by some of Iraq’s Sunni Arabs. Drawing inspiration from the Baath party strongman, who now languishes in jail awaiting trial, marchers in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of … Read More