War on Terror
No doubt there are some who’ve shoved this story in their “Bush’s eyes off the terrorist ball” file folders, but I see it as further evidence that the end game cannot be otherwise than a transformation of the entire region: A suicide bomber wearing an Afghan military uniform detonated his concealed explosive vest near a…
I thought of A. Douglas, from Providence, today: This past summer has been the bloodiest summer of the war for U.S. soldiers; Iraqi deaths from sectarian violence have doubled this year; and there is no political progress in Iraq. This is not a policy that deserves more time. It is way beyond the time to…
Ed Kinane must be so proud: Iran’s parliament voted Saturday to designate the CIA and the U.S. Army as “terrorist organizations,” a largely symbolic response to a U.S. Senate resolution seeking a similar designation for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. The parliament said the Army and the CIA were terrorists because of the atomic bombing of Japan;…
Rhode Island Congressmen Patrick Kennedy and James Langevin both voted yesterday in favor of attaching a resolution to this year’s defense appropriations bill commending Iraq War Commanding General David Petraeus and condemning MoveOn.org’s paid New York Times advertisement questioning his patriotism…Congress makes the following findings: (1) General David H. Petraeus was confirmed by a unanimous…
If I were living in Providence’s 9th Ward, I’d be seriously concerned that I might be represented by a City Councilman who believes that a government that kills 100,000 of its own people in a time of “peace” is acceptable (kind of worries you about what his ideas for cost-control on health care might be,…
Michael J. Totten has done incredible work reporting from Iraq. I highly recommend his latest, Anbar Awakens Part II: Hell is Over. There’s so much in his story, but I was particularly moved by this passage: The Iraqis of Anbar Province turned against Al Qaeda and sided with the Americans in large part because Al…
Feeding into the WPRO ad, “Where do bloggers go….”, Dan Yorke brings up an interesting point. Why was there a need for a “Democrat response” to the Presidential speech on the status of the conflict in Iraq? Dan talked to Brown University’s Darrell West about it, and they came to the following conclusions: 1) There…
Despite some disagreement about the specific metrics cited, there really wasn’t much disagreement on the basic accuracy General David Petraeus’ report to Congress on post-surge conditions in Iraq. The important takeaways were…The surge has worked to turn Sunni communities against al-Qaida in Iraq. It is unlikely that the Sunnis by themselves would have had the…
The Politico reports on frustration that anti-war types are experiencing over their marginalized role in mainstream politics. Rabbi Michael Lerner, an “anti-war” leader from Berkeley, California, says that…“The Democrats don’t have – and even the people in the anti-war movement don’t have – a coherent alternative world view from which to base a strategy. That’s…
The New York Times’ version of General David Petraeus much-anticipated recommendation on how to proceed in Iraq is that 1) the surge has been successful enough, both against the enemy and in giving Iraqis the confidence to fight on our side, to allow a draw-down of troops to pre-surge levels, possibly between December and next…