War on Terror
Hey, whatever works: While the CIA has a long history of buying information with cash, the growing Taliban insurgency has prompted the use of novel incentives and creative bargaining to gain support in some of the country’s roughest neighborhoods, according to officials directly involved in such operations. In their efforts to win over notoriously fickle…
Here’s an interesting fact for perspective: The number of daily attacks in Iraq has fallen almost 95% from levels a year ago. Also of note, the murder rate in Iraq in November was 0.9 per 100,000 people. That is lower than the rate from before Saddam was overthrown. For those keeping score, the 2007 murder…
Mark Steyn gives it good and righteous to the PC media and a Western culture intent on turning a deliberately deaf ear to the beast growling outside the tent: In a well-planned attack on iconic Bombay landmarks symbolizing great power and wealth, the “militants” nevertheless found time to divert 20 percent of their manpower to…
Of course one should temper incredulity when addressing the opinions of a college professor who’s written a book on a related topic, but so wrongheaded does Jonathan Stevenson’s assessment of Osama post-Obama seem that it’s difficult to conclude otherwise than that he has an investment of some kind in the wrong argument: ONE OF SEN.…
We in Rhode Island, along with most people the world over, are spared the even the passing need to believe that terrorism is a real possibility in our daily lives: U.S. authorities warned yesterday that recent intelligence indicates that al-Qaida may be plotting a terrorist attack on the subway or other transit systems in New…
Here’s a visual indicator of the success of the surge — as well as a reminder of what stands to be lost if the United States chooses poorly in the coming years.
Karl Stephens, of Barrington, recalls what many seem to have forgotten: In its Aug. 19 editorial about Iraq’s $79 billion budget surplus from oil revenue (“America the sucker”), The Journal fails to mention the most important aspect of that oil-revenue story. Before Operation Iraqi Freedom, oil money was used by Iraq to sponsor terrorism, build…
Statements such as this suggest that Obama (probably among many Democrats and some Republicans) either doesn’t think comprehensively when it comes to strategy or is anxious to diminish America’s importance as an agent for change: … the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” contended that the decline was brought about not…
Via Instapundit comes re-reportage that reports of Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki’s support for Obama’s withdrawal plan were over-hyped. From CNN: But a spokesman for al-Maliki said his remarks “were misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately.” Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the possibility of troop withdrawal was based on the continuance of security improvements, echoing statements…
Mark Patinkin’s column takes a massive military analytical document as a springboard to declare the “incompetence of those” who put our troops in harm’s way: Up to now, that second point has mostly been made by those labeled war critics. But this week, the Army itself came out with a major report essentially saying the…
