257 articles
Milblogger Matt Sanchez is currently at FOB Falcon and has been asking questions at the base about Scotty Beauchamp, whose stories for the New Republic are being investigated by both the Army and the editors at TNR. Sanchez reports: Despite a full day of dealing with securing a dangerous Baghdad…
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The Danger Room posts today on the cost of the surge: The "surge" of increased troops in Iraq could cost as much as $40 billion to maintain, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. In testimony today to the House Budget Committee, CBO assistant director Robert Sunshine says…
Leafing through the new issue of the New Republic, eyes peeled for word on the progress of the magazine's investigation into Scotty Beauchamp (there's no mention), we came across a riveting series of photographs by Ashley Gilbertson--"An Iraq Album" as the magazine titled it. The magazine further…
Late last year, Eric Egland wrote a piece for THE DAILY STANDARD titled "Six Steps to Victory". The plan was based on Egland's service in both Iraq and Afghanistan as well as his prior experience in counterterrorism. Egland's strategy focused on increasing the effectiveness of American troops in…
The Washington Post reports this morning on an interview with House Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn. While Clyburn covered a lot of ground, the item that has attracted the most attention is Clyburn's acknowledgment that a positive report from General Petraeus on Operation Phantom Thunder could be "a…
From National Review: Turning Point?, by John McCain, Victor Davis Hanson, Michael Yon, and others. From the Washington Post: Clyburn: House Democrats Could Split on War, by Dan Balz and Chris Cillizza. From the New York Sun: Brown Disappoints Critics of Iraq War, by Nicholas Wapshott. From Michael…
The Iraqi soccer team gave the nation a reason to celebrate on Sunday with a victory over Saudi Arabia in the Asia Cup final. There were no major attacks reported during Sunday celebrations, and Iraqi Security Forces killed a suicide bomber and defused another car bomb in Baghdad. Last week's…
One of the more important post-9/11 reforms was the creation of passenger watch lists and the effort to ensure that the names of all passengers flying to this country were disclosed before arrival. But while important to U.S. security, it has been a significant challenge to induce our partners to…
Most of us remember the joke from the famous Robin Williams film Good Morning, Vietnam. "Here's Airman Adrian Cronauer with a little riddle for you. What's the difference between the army and the cub scouts? Ahhhnnn. Cub scouts don't have heavy artillery." Nashi1.jpg Su-27s fly in formation above…
"Do I contradict myself? "Very well then I contradict myself." IS THIS DESCRIPTION, used by poet Walt Whitman in his classic "Leaves of Grass", fairly applied to economists trying to explain what is going on in the United States and other world economies? I think not, although the information…
MOST OF US REMEMBER the joke from the famous Robin Williams film Good Morning, Vietnam.
When the Columbia Journalism Review solicits donations, it explains its mission like this: We are dedicated to defending quality journalism, which has many enemies and challenges these days. Our best weapons are deep analysis and investigation, and these tools can be expensive. We rely on people…
In an attempt to discredit the O'Hanlon/Pollack piece on the success of the surge (commented on here earlier today by my colleague Mike Goldfarb), bloggers on the left are trying to depict the two as long-time supporters of the war. Glenn Greenwald, in particular, assembles an array of quotes…
From the New York Times: A War We Just Might Win, by Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack. From the American Spectator: The Peculiar Private, by John Tabin. From the Wall Street Journal: General Petraeus Needs Time, by Peter Wehner. From Contentions: Anti-Anti-Anti-Missile Defense, by Gabriel…
24libya-a550.jpg Bulgarian medics convicted of infecting Libyan children with
Official Chinese media have been conspicuously silent about a July 9th clash between the Chinese navy and Vietnamese fishing boats near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The Singapore newspaper the Straits Times reported on July 19th. _300886_sprat300.gif From the BBC.
That according to Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack writing in today's New York Times: Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration's…
The main talking point for Democrats this week was that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales needs to go. After admitting he doesn't care what David Petraeus has to say about Iraq this September ,Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold had this to say on Fox News Sunday about Gonzales: "If the attorney…
Willing to Choose
The biggest surprise in Washington in 2007 is who's turned out to be the strongest force in town. It's not Democrats, though they control the House and the Senate. It's not a bipartisan alliance of moderates, who often imagine themselves as pivotal but never are. And it's certainly not a…
"You ought to talk to your publisher," said the radio host. "They're really overselling you."
Feinstein's Guantánamo Prison Blues
Passions and Tempers
A miniflap recently broke out over a Politico item about a July 9 memo to "Interested Parties" from Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton's chief strategist. Penn's memo was definitely designed to foster an impression of growing Clinton strength. Politico's Ben Smith went a step farther in his…
The leading Democratic presidential contenders have voiced a new conventional wisdom in recent weeks: The war in Iraq has little or nothing to do with defeating al Qaeda. Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have embraced this view, as has the New York Times. It is dangerously wrong. At the…
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Why Classical Music Still Matters
Is Rudy Giuliani the political reincarnation of Richard Nixon? That was the argument former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson made in a Washington Post column last week.
In the 1960s, history called the Baby Boomers. They didn't answer the phone.
SILVER SCREEN STALINISTS
Cindy Sheehan, mother of a soldier who was killed in Iraq, emerged on the American political scene two years ago. Distraught and unstable, she was shamelessly exploited by opponents of George W. Bush and the war while such exploitation seemed to pay political benefits. When she became an…
In the film Home of the Brave, a soldier who lost her hand in Iraq is asked if she underwent physical rehabilitation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. "Yeah, Walter Reed," she says. "Talk about tough Americans." Tough Americans, indeed. When I visited that same ward, the first soldier I met was…
Congress seems poised to scuttle a free trade agreement with Colombia--and thus hand Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, the anti-Yanqui gadfly, an unexpected gift. In late June, Democratic House leaders announced that the U.S.-Colombia FTA, signed last November and awaiting congres sional approval,…
A Thousand Splendid Suns
The Forgotten Man
ALMOST SIX YEARS after September 11, 2001, and more than four years since the beginning of the U.S.-led intervention in Iraq, the American government and media have begun to admit something every informed and honest Muslim in the world has known all along. That is: the "Sunni insurgency" in Iraq,…
When the WWS and others first raised questions about the New Republic's Baghdad Diarist, the lefty blogs were mostly silent. Only one even mentioned the controversy, and that was to say the Beauchamp's story "has a faint whiff of bullshit about it." But the left has since closed ranks--the…
Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus report on progress in Iraq: He said the troop buildup has clearly established "tactical momentum," meaning its more aggressive efforts to secure volatile neighborhoods in Baghdad and areas around the capital are succeeding. The bigger issue is whether those…
From the Washington Post: Army Private Discloses He is New Republic's Baghdad Diarist, by Howard Kurtz. From RealClearPolitics: Pvt. Beauchamp: In Big Trouble Either Way, by Jack Kelly. From TCS Daily: Three Inconvenient Truths About Iraq Right Now, by Peter J. Wallison. From Middle East Journal:…
When the mainstream press first picked up the story of "Scott Thomas", aka Pvt Scotty Beauchamp, New Republic editor Frank Foer told the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz that "The Standard raises some important questions about the piece, and we're investigating them.' 'Who is "Scott Thomas"?' was not…
Charles Krauthammer offers a strong column today on Barack Obama's national security naivety: For Barack Obama, it was strike two. And this one was a right-down-the-middle question from a YouTuber in Monday night's South Carolina debate: "Would you be willing to meet separately, without…
IMAGINE WHAT A WOLF in sheep's clothing would actually look like: a six-foot long, 170-pound killing machine prancing on the tips of its paws and choking out a guttural "baa" while the mottled-wool hide slips off its back. The image is a little more farcical than menacing.
As usual, Confederate Yankee provides the best wrap-up of the days events. Ace has broken his own major story today, and finds himself in a beef with the Corner's John Podhoretz for his troubles. Hot Air and Michelle Malkin are also digging into Beauchamp's relationship with TNR. Elsewhere, Riehl…
Over at NRO, THE WEEKLY STANDARD's own Steve Hayes goes on the record with Kathryn Jean Lopez on the topic of his new book, Cheney:The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President. Here's a sample: Lopez: Dick Cheney was an ardent Rumsfeld loyalist. Was that all loyalty…
Just doing a little digging on Scott Thomas Beauchamp and we stumble across this piece from the Missourian: "Glenn is completely submerged in politics on campus. It is honestly impossible to think about politics at MU without thinking of Glenn," says Scott Beauchamp, editor-in-chief of Prospectus,…
"Scott Thomas" has revealed himself with this statement: My Diarist, "Shock Troops," and the two other pieces I wrote for the New Republic have stirred more controversy than I could ever have anticipated. They were written under a pseudonym, because I wanted to write honestly about my experiences,…
After a several week lull in major mass casualty suicide attack inside Baghdad, al Qaeda in Iraq struck three times against Iraqi civilians over the past 24 hours. Yesterday's attacks occurred during the celebration of the Iraqi soccer team's victory at the Asia Games, which advanced the club to…
In between votes on the war in Iraq, the House is expected soon to consider the fiscal year 2008 defense appropriations bill. While this bill will occasion one or more votes on Iraq, it may also see a floor debate over missile defense. That's because when the House Appropriations Committee approved…
In response to a request for more information, FOB Falcon PAO Major Kirk Ludeke sent this along: Mike- We are in the midst of a formal investigation into the allegations Pvt Beauchamp has made. That's all I can say for now. Respectfully, Kirk Major Kirk Luedeke Public Affairs Officer 4th IBCT, 1st…
Over at Blackfive, Uncle Jimbo writes on Beauchamp's decision to step forward now: As far as writing under your own name, as I noted above JD Johannes had already identified you down to Company (100+ troops) level and you used your first and middle names as your pseudonym you freakin' pinhead. You…
IN NOVEMBER 2001, long before the Kelo ruling threw the floodlights on eminent domain abuse, Susan Watson sent a distressed letter to James D. Sinegal, the president and CEO of Costco. She owned several hundred shares in the retail giant--and, as she put it, had been "a loyal customer and ardent…
THE COLLEGE REPUBLICAN National Committee launched its annual convention at the Sheraton Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, on July 13. Hundreds of College Republicans make the pilgrimage every two years to elect a new board and to check up on their comrades in the right-wing conspiracy. According to…
ABC News has done its own reporting on the "Scott Thomas" mystery and has gotten the New Republic to go on record with some new information about their pseudonymous Baghdad Diarist. According to reporter Marcus Baram, New Republic editor Frank Foer is "absolutely certain" that "Thomas" is a soldier…
There is a lot of speculation surrounding the identity of the New Republic's mysterious, pseudonymous "Scott Thomas", aka the Baghdad Diarist. A semiotics-based analysis by John Barnes has poured fuel on the fire with the conclusion that "Thomas" fits the profile of a creative writing program…
From ABC News: Who is the 'Baghdad Diarist', by Marcus Baram. From the San Francisco Chronicle: Anonymous in Iraq, by Kathleen Parker. From National Review: Stephen Glass Meets the Winter Soldier, by Mackubin Thomas Owens. From the DEW Line: Big "D's" Top 10: Reyes still leads, but Courtney catches…
In their continuing effort to end the war in Iraq, the House of Representatives will vote today on legislation to bar the establishment of permanent bases in Iraq: Instead of embracing bipartisan alternatives, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid dropped the Iraq debate altogether. House Speaker Nancy…
Yesterday a number of bloggers had the chance to speak with Juan Zarate, deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism. Mr. Zarate was recapping President Bush's speech at Charleston Air Force Base in which the president argued about the centrality of the war in Iraq to the ongoing war…
A HALF CENTURY AGO, William F. Buckley, Jr., created quite a stir when he published God and Man At Yale, bemoaning the junior status accorded the Almighty within its ivied walls. Today a new phenomenon is sweeping the Yale campus, especially at Yale Divinity School, where in the mid-1940s I studied…
EVEN THOUGH HOUSE Democrats campaigned on promises to improve ethics, promote greater transparency and disclosure, and fight corruption, it now appears they will not require some of their top campaign contributors to live by those same vows.
A recap of today's New York Times coverage, for those of you keeping score at home. In this morning's paper, the Times runs a story on the questions surrounding the credibility of New Republic's Baghdad Diarist. The last line of that story seems to indicate that New Republic editor Frank Foer is…
army.mil-2007-07-20-074019.jpg A Soldier from the 3rd Infantry Division and an Iraqi Soldier
From THE DAILY STANDARD: Hillary Outflanks Obama, by Fred Barnes. From the Wall Street Journal: Syria Occupies Lebanon. Again. by Bret Stephens. From the Los Angeles Times: In Iraq, Liberals Flip on Genocide, by Jonah Goldberg. From Defense Tech: 82nd on the Hunt in Iraq, by David Axe. From the New…
The Democratic candidates got together at the Citadel and all we got was this lousy T-shirt. Actually, we got a range of opinions on who won, and a few moments to chuckle at or worry about--depending on how you look at things. But there is joy on the left as the Democratic base surveys the debating…
I watched the debate last night, and I wasn't impressed. The YouTube format, by allowing the moderators to choose the questions, rather than craft them, totally insulated those moderators from any criticism. But at the end of the day, we still got questions that painted conservatives as fringe, and…
The New York Times runs a piece today examining the questions surrounding the "Scott Thomas" story that appeared in the New Republic last week. New Republic editor Frank Foer told the Times reporter, "Now that these questions have been raised, we've launched an inquiry. We're putting the full…
FOR HILLARY CLINTON, the presidency is not in the bag. Even winning the Democratic presidential nomination is considerably less than a sure thing. But of the 18 Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, Clinton is the most likely to be the next president. And she did nothing last night in…
OPERATE INTERNATIONALLY, and at times you have to fight a two-front war. That's what the private equity industry, with bases both in New York and London, finds itself called upon to do, as politicians in the United Stated and the United Kingdom launch simultaneous attacks on its tax status. Never…
TURKEY'S REELECTION OF incumbent prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP, or Justice and Development Party, has reenergized the low-level debate in Washington about foreign Islamic parties that claim to respect democracy and secularism. But for the AKP--no less than its rivals in the Turkish…
Two amusing posts over at the American Spectator blog that help set the mood for tonight's Democratic primary debate. The first comes from Jennifer Rubin, who has produced a list of the Top 10 statements we are unlikely to hear at the debate tonight...here's a taste: 1. "I won't engage in class…
Harper's took a shot at the WWS and others on Friday in the context of a piece about the Pentagon's "Blogger Outreach" program. Author Ken Silverstein writes that the program arranges regular conference calls during which senior Pentagon officials brief retired military officials, civilian defense…
The New York Times opines today on what they see as the limits on the president's power as Commander in Chief. And in particular, they describe Bush as the sort of 'imperial President' the Founders would have feared: Given how intent the president is on expanding his authority, it is startling to…
On July 15th, after nine days of captivity, Zhang Guohua, an executive with the China Nuclear International Uranium Corporation (Sino-U), was released by the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ). Within days of the abduction, heeding MNJ's call for foreign companies to withdraw, the China Nuclear…
Operation Phantom Thunder and the Baghdad Security Plan continue to place pressure on al Qaeda in Iraq, allied Sunni insurgent groups, the Mahdi Army and the Iranian-backed Special Group. In Baghdad, junior al Qaeda in Iraq operatives are reportedly cooperating with Coalition forces and a series of…
From the Washington Post: Magazine Mystery, by Howard Kurtz. From THE WEEKLY STANDARD: The 9/11 Generation, by Dean Barnett. From the Los Angeles Times: Iraq isn't Vietnam, by Max Boot. From Slate: The Galloway Papers, by Christopher Hitchens. From the Wall Street Journal ($): China's Space…
UPDATED 1:11 pm We have another statement from Major Ludeke at FOB Falcon regarding the "Scott Thomas" "Shock Troops" story in the New Republic: I've been watching the events on the New Republic's "Scott Thomas" piece with interest. As the 4th IBCT Public Affairs Officer- I can tell you…
0,1020,820561,00.jpg Thomas Enders (left) and Louis Gallois. (DPA)
Between Meet the Press and Face the Nation, viewers of the Sunday morning talk shows were given a glimpse of the deep divisions in the Senate's Democratic caucus. On Meet the Press, Sen. Russ Feingold announced he "will be shortly introducing a censure resolution of the president and the…
Only a Promise of Happiness
White House officials were pushing the line last week that President Bush would soon take a positive new tack in defending the war in Iraq. He'd talk about what Iraq would look like after the "surge" of American troops in Baghdad had succeeded and the soldiers were beginning to come home. Peter…
Nine people, including seven Spanish tourists, were killed in Yemen on July 2 when a suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden car barreled into a tourist vehicle convoy as it left an archaeological site. A new al Qaeda franchise calling itself "Al Qaeda of the Jihad in Yemen" claimed…
Buy Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President, by Stephen F. Hayes.
In March 1999, Samantha Comfort of Lynn, Massachusetts, tried to enroll her daughter Elizabeth at the only Lynn public school close enough to her job that she could pick the kindergartner up on time each day. The school refused to take Elizabeth--not because it didn't have space for another child,…
Our First Revolution
I don't think Congress ought to be running the war. I think they ought to be funding the troops. --George W. Bush, press conference, July 12, 2007
In a country that for the past year has consistently ceded ground to terrorists, the storming of the Lal Masjid mosque in Islamabad was a rare bit of good news. As Pakistani forces wrapped up their raid on July 11, their examination of 73 bodies recovered from the so-called red mosque suggested…
FIGHT FOR READING FIRST
Of all the betrayals of childhood, one that still stings came at the hands of the Weekly Reader. Every six weeks or so the teachers at my progressive little Quaker school would distribute copies of the Reader, and we would seize on it as an alternative to school work. The Reader was a short…
Late last week Byron Dorgan, the North Dakota Democrat, offered what he assumed was an uncontroversial amendment to the 2008 Defense Authorization bill under consideration in the Senate. The amendment would have increased to $50 million the reward "for the capture, or information leading to the…
The American Civil Liberties Union's Steven Shapiro is one of the best lawyers in the United States. Still, he was flat wrong when he told the New York Times that a federal appeals court's July 6 dismissal of the ACLU's challenge to the Bush administration's now-defunct Terrorist Surveillance…
Cannibal Island
A General We're Not Going to Salute
John Walker Jr. of the infamous Walker family spy ring was once asked how he had been able to pass some of the nation's most heavily guarded communications codes to the KGB for so long without being detected--almost 18 years, until he was caught in 1985. Walker's answer was both revealing and…
Transformers
The Border of Truth
The blogosphere is still abuzz with talk of "Shock Troops." Over at Hot Air, Bryan writes that in response to questions about the story from Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz, TNR editor Frank Foer "offers snark instead of substantive answers." Meanwhile, Gateway Pundit sees the response from…
Via Matt Sanchez, we've received this statement from Major Kirk Luedeke, the Public Affairs Officer at FOB Falcon, the base where "Scott Thomas" claims that he and his buddies ridiculed a woman who was badly disfigured by an IED blast (no one has yet come forward to claim they either have seen or…
The effort to prove or disprove the New Republic's "Shock Troops" story (see here, here, and here for background, or just scroll down) got a bit of a boost today as the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz examined the growing doubts surrounding the "Scott Thomas" piece under the headline "Bloggers Raise…
The first "Scott Thomas" piece for the New Republic, "War Bonds" (February 5, 2007), tells the story of an Iraqi boy whose tongue is cut out for speaking with "Thomas"'s unit. The piece opens with this: In Baghdad, a busted infrastructure has left entire neighborhoods navigable by vehicle only. The…
New Republic editor Frank Foer has finally responded to questions about the veracity of the "Shock Troops" piece published in the magazine this week under the pseudonym "Scott Thomas". Here's what Foer had to say: Several conservative blogs have raised questions about the Diarist "Shock Troops,"…
WWS pal John posts an interesting tidbit at Op-For that comes in an email from "a VMI Army Captain who routinely runs into IEDs on patrol." The captain writes: John, IEDs do not have a melting effect upon contact with human skin. Some are configured to expel more fire than shrapnel, but those are…
From Stephen Spruiell over at The Corner on some of Thomas's early work for the New Republic: "Scott Thomas" has written three pieces for The New Republic. In the first of these, he refers to a neighborhood in Baghdad he says all the soldiers call "Little Venice" because the sewage pipes are always…
Senator Clinton has taken offense -- and many others in the blogosphere seem to have as well -- at the response she received from Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman. (Note here and here, for two of many examples.) We encourage you to read the full text of Edelman's response and determine for…
UDATED 3:02 pm UPDATED 3:57 pm The blog at the American Spectator has some great stuff on "Shock Troops." John Tabin finds more suspect information in a previous story by "Scott Thomas". In his second piece for the New Republic titled "Dead of Night," "Thomas" had written, Someone reached down and…
Iraqi and Coalition forces remain on the offensive in the Baghdad Belts of Eastern Anbar province, Northern Babil and Diyala, as the bulk of the major suicide and bombing attacks have shifted to the northern regions of Iraq. Kirkuk has seen a massive suicide attack over the past week, while…
Questions about the New Republic's "Shock Troops" story that were raised at THE WORLDWIDE STANDARD late Wednesday continue to go unanswered. In fact, active duty soldiers and various experts have raised further doubts about almost all elements of the "Scott Thomas" account. What we do know,…
INSIDE THE NATIONAL GALLERY'S WEST BUILDING, a banner proclaims: "Fabulous Journeys and Faraway Places: Travel on Paper 1450-1700." Perhaps some might skip this invitation in search of something more contemporary. But that would be a mistake.
WHILE THE OVERNIGHT "SLUMBER PARTY" in the Senate made headlines Tuesday night, a vote that night in the House on an amendment to the Department of Labor appropriations bill was largely ignored, but its significance was anything but trivial.
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE New Republic's "Shock Troops" story that were raised at THE WORLDWIDE STANDARD late Wednesday continue to go unanswered. In fact, active duty soldiers and various experts have raised further doubts about almost all elements of the "Scott Thomas" account.
Greyhawk over at the Mudville Gazette has chimed in with his thoughts on the "Shock Troops" controversy: Not until the second sentence does his story completely and totally fall apart: She wore an unrecognizable tan uniform, so I couldn't really tell whether she was a soldier or a civilian…
I think I can safely say that Michael Yon is the most highly regarded combat reporter the Iraq war has yet produced, and he writes the WWS today in response to the New Republic's "Shock Troops" story: That story about American soldiers at FOB Falcon sounds like complete garbage. I spent time with…
Sioux City, Iowa, July 18, 2007 Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani told THE WEEKLY STANDARD in an interview here that he is currently reading American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion, former Wall Street Journal reporter Paul M. Barrett's heavily reported look at the American…
You should take the time to read Hugh Hewitt's interview with General David Petraeus, who gives an excellent assessment of where Operation Phantom Thunder stands right now. He covers both the successes and the challenges. Some highlights: HH: Do you think al Qaeda in Iraq is buckling, General…
I'm trolling through the comments at other blogs to see what other useful information we can dig up... Over at Ace of Spades, commenter PJ (#39) writes: 36 I have been awarded the Army Tracked Driver's Badge for driving a Bradley. It's not a common award (or wasn't in my day). I know what I am…
We're getting huge amounts of feedback on this, and the story continues to spread in the blogosphere. But we're going to post updates throughout the day as more comes in. If you haven't read the original story, click here. Here's the latest list of blogs covering this, which we will keep updating…
THE PEOPLE of the Democratic Republic of Georgia are known for several things: their sunny hospitality, their remarkable longevity and, most strikingly for first time visitors, their atrocious driving. On a recent trip to Tbilisi (Georgia's capital), I discovered what such terrible driving portends…
UPDATED 12:37 pm A mission for milbloggers: The New Republic runs a piece in this week's issue titled "Shock Troops" (sub. req.) and authored by Scott Thomas--described by the magazine as a "pseudonym for a soldier currently serving in Baghdad." "Thomas" is the author of two previous dispatches…
The New Republic runs a piece in this week's issue titled "Shock Troops" and authored by Scott Thomas--described by the magazine as a "pseudonym for a soldier currently serving in Baghdad." "Thomas" is the author of two previous dispatches from Iraq for the New Republic, both of which recount…
oct_qt_snapshot.jpg The Chinook assists fire fighters in
Was it just last week that the House passed legislation to force a 'responsible redeployment' from Iraq? Was it just this morning that the Senate demonstrated that they're far short of having the votes to overcome a filibuster and get a vote on a measure to force the president's hand on Iraq? You…
That's the title of a piece in today's Los Angeles Times that features interviews with a number of lawmakers that favor withdrawal...and most aren't particularly concerned with the outcome for Iraq: Lawmakers who have led the drive to bring troops home from Iraq have not devised a strategy to deal…
Dick Morris is a political strategist, so it's not an indictment to say that he views the war in Iraq through a strategist's prism, rather than as a national security or terrorism expert. He has argued in recent weeks that the president must commence a drawdown in Iraq to avoid a sweeping…
As senators shuffle in for the final quorum call at a little after 5 in the morning, a thought occurs to me: Isn't this entire operation an exercise in child abuse? Every time the Senate reassembles, pages are forced to man the doors, get glasses of water, and do other pagely duties. These minors…
Stuck in the Capitol at this ungodly hour, I can't help but feel pity for the staffers who drew the short straw and got stuck with the late shift. From the police officers trying to figure out why the metal detectors continue to pick up my belt to the ushers forced to rouse slumbering members of…
Grim Reaper.JPG Protesting the Dems?
THE DESPERATION THAT drives millions of illegal immigrants into this country will never subside as long as there are no jobs and no opportunities in their stagnant homeland economies. Fortunately, there is a way the United States could jump-start vibrant, non-corrupt, globalized economies inside…
IF REPUBLICAN SENATORS abandon President Bush on Iraq in September, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell won't be leading the stampede. Not that he had ever planned to. But McConnell had talked earlier about his expectation that Bush would adopt "a new direction" in Iraq in September, one that…
YOU WOULDN'T KNOW IT from George Bush's dismal approval rating, but 70 percent of Americans still "favor the U.S.-led efforts to fight terrorism." At least that was the finding of a Pew Global Attitudes Survey conducted this spring and released late last month.
capt.d3c0e8cf802d423abd85abe108a289fb.senate_iraq_dcsw109.jpg McCain and Martinez listen as Pete Hegseth spoke today on Capitol Hill.
Among the members of the "Justice Advisory Committee" that the Giuliani presidential campaign announced today are four lawyers who have been mentioned in media reports as possible Supreme Court nominees at various times since the Bush administration first came to power. The committee's chairman,…
Karen DeYoung and Thomas E. Ricks have a piece in the Washington Post today that takes a closer look at what the military has determined to be the probable fall-out from a rapid U.S. withdrawal in Iraq. They quote retired Marine Col. Gary Anderson, who says "I honestly don't think it will be…
Rocky_bullwinkle_tracks.jpg
EARLY THIS MORNING, a committee of the British House of Commons suspended the flamboyant George Galloway, member from Bethnal Green and Bow, for 18 days for concealing the Iraqi funding of his "charity," the Mariam Appeal. Founded in the late 1990s to bring attention to the suffering of Iraqis…
From THE DAILY STANDARD: The Iran-Contra Minority Redux, by Michael J. Malbin. From the New York Sun: Iran Is Found To Be a Lair of Al Qaeda, by Eli Lake. From the New York Post: The Last Hawk, by Rich Lowry. From National Review: Listen to the Military, by Michael Ledeen. From the Danger Room:…
Today the Heritage Foundation hosted a briefing with Congressman Tom Price (R-GA), an orthopedic surgeon and former State Senator. He came to hammer home a message we've heard from lots of House Republicans lately -- we got the message. In his commentary, he talked about the many mistakes that…
capt.aabc934e65704693b94616aaa7df6599.mccain_2008_caer110.jpg (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
The State Department today convened a conference call for interested media and bloggers with Thomas Timberman, the Team Leader of the North Babil Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team (EPRT). Like the Provincial Reconstruction Teams, which focus on economic and political progress on the level of…
size1-army.mil-2007-07-16-095725.jpg Soldiers from the 5th Cavalry Regiment look
IN A RECENT New York Times op-ed, "Mr. Cheney's Minority Report" (July 19), historian Sean Wilentz claimed that there was a direct connection between Oliver North, the Iran-Contra Committee's Republican minority led by then-Rep. Richard B. Cheney, and the current Administration's view of executive…
THAT JUST ABOUT SUMMARIZES what is going on in the U.S. economy. Some weather watchers say the headwinds are close to gale force. The uproar in the subprime mortgage market has the rating the agencies becoming more picky; lenders are taking a longer look at borrowers before handing over money; and…
House and Senate negotiators are working out the plan for passage of legislation to implement many of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. Once it passes, Democrats will claim victory in having implemented all the remaining recommendations. But that won't exactly be true. Congress has…
By tradition, lame duck presidents do not accomplish much. They must narrow their legislative focus to a few significant priorities that will figure prominently when their legacies are assessed. In particular, they tend to focus on foreign policy--where Congress is traditionally more deferential to…
From THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Why F-14s Are Being Put Into the Shredder, by Reuben F. Johnson. From National Review: Leadership Challenge, by William J. Bennett & Seth Leibsohn. From the New York Times: U.S. General in Iraq Speaks Strongly Against Troop Pullout, by John F. Burns. From the New York Sun:…
For about two weeks now, the Chinese-language website Chinamil.com, which is operated under the auspices of PLA Daily, has been promoting with banner headlines a special feature titled "In the Middle East, There Is a Chinese Peacekeeping Engineering Brigade." Included are previously published…
Merkel Photo.jpg Merkel holds a copy of the Turkish daily Hurriyet.
Iraq was once again the main topic on the Sunday shows. Over at Fox News Sunday, WEEKLY STANDARD contributor Frederick Kagan took on Democratic notions that no political progress is being made in the troubled country.
Amnesty International has come in for some bad press recently. Can a human-rights organization be taken seriously when its annual report dwells more on abuses in America and England than in Belarus and Saudi Arabia? When it rebukes Israel far more often than Iran, Libya, Syria, and Egypt? Or when…
Granta 97
Of former Bush officials, Christine Todd Whitman would seem to be the most difficult to cast as a White House puppet. During her tenure as Environmental Protection Agency director from 2001 to 2003, Whitman looked askance at the Bush line on global warming. It became clear early on, says one…
As jihadist plots continue to be uncovered from Glasgow to New Jersey, it is plain that no place can be considered entirely safe. That includes placid, would-be neutral Switzerland, where a series of incidents and controversies in recent months points to a small but untiring Saudi-sponsored…
Seizure
Sir Elton's Candle Power
LIBERTY IN HONG KONG
All of Washington is divided into four unequal parts, and in just over two years I've lived in all of them. I acquired that distinction when I moved to an apartment complex in Southwest once occupied by a crack-smoking former mayor.
Browsing the children's books at Barnes & Noble the other day, I was exasperated to find so many books based on, or otherwise employing, metaphors.
Two years ago, CNN heavyweight Lou Dobbs inexplicably began propagating the theory that illegal aliens were unleashing an epidemic of leprosy in this country. In an April 14, 2005, broadcast that was recently exhumed by 60 Minutes, the man who has become a champion of the middle class in the…
Richard Lugar of Indiana, George Voinovich of Ohio, Pete Domenici of New Mexico, and John Warner of Virginia have together served more than a century in the world's greatest deliberative body. Historians will remember their time in public office for Reagan's challenge to the Soviet Union, for the…
Richmond, Virginia
Ratatouille
Dry Manhattan
Long accustomed to abusing their power with impunity, the Saudi mutawiyin or "religious police" (more on that misleading translation in a moment) suddenly find themselves on the defensive. Increasingly challenged by critics, they felt compelled early this year to go through the motions of…
Torturing al Qaeda suspects is impermissible in all circumstances, an army of lawyers and moralists are telling us, even if it would stop a nuclear bomb ticking down to zero, hidden in New York City or Fort Knox. But if inflicting pain during an interrogation is always against law and morality,…
Partners in Command
Juneau
First off, the boss has an op-ed in the Post today, titled "Why Bush Will Be A Winner." Kristol starts: I suppose I'll merely expose myself to harmless ridicule if I make the following assertion: George W. Bush's presidency will probably be a successful one. Let's step back from the unnecessary…
Roggio just posted what I think is the definitive takedown of the argument put forward earlier in the week by Small Wars Journal contributor Malcolm Nance. Nance's theory is that al Qaeda is basically a bit player in the insurgency--small, but lethal--and that the administration is trying to hype…
McCain is doing a conference call with bloggers right now, here's a few quotes so far: McCain says he just met Sarkozy--he says Sarkozy is "the first real pro-American I've met since Lafayette." On progress in Iraq: "In Iraq, we are making progress militarily, we are not making progress…
A couple worthy causes that our readers need know about. The first is a new project set up by WWS contributor Bill Roggio with the aim of providing fresh reporting and analysis on The Long War. Roggio's new organization, Public Multimedia Inc., already has plans to sponsor fully the costs of…
In today's New York Times, under the headline "Bush Distorts Qaeda Links, Critics Assert," the paper itself greatly distorts the evidence concerning al Qaeda's presence in Iraq. The paper paints a picture of al Qaeda in Iraq is, in important ways, highly misleading. Here are several reasons why as…
From the Wall Street Journal ($): The Surge is Working, by Omar Fadhil. From the Wall Street Journal: A Top Gun Fantasy Comes True, by Bret Stephens. From USA Today: Iraq Strategy Shows Progress, by Stephen J. Hadley. From the AP: U.S. Tempts Japan With New F-22 Jets. From the Washington Post:…
While the big story on Iraq actually occurred in Washington with the release of the Initial Benchmark Assessment Report, which assessed the progress of the Iraqi government as the Baghdad Security Plan, Iraqi and U.S. security forces pressed al Qaeda and the Mahdi Army on all fronts.…
Amsterdam
Ask and you shall receive... Earlier today I wrote about the need to change how Americans think about Iraq, and this afternoon White House Press Secretary Tony Snow explained to a number of bloggers his planned contribution: a 'surge of facts.' Snow spoke about the new audio/visual features of the…
As the president today explains where progress has been made in Iraq, and where the Iraqi government has failed to meet our expectations, it seems apparent that what we're doing is not working. I'm not speaking of Operation Phantom Thunder ('the surge'), where this magazine has chronicled the…
From Armed Forces Journal: Flashpoint: Venezuela, by Peter Brookes. From FAS: China Reorganizes Northern Nuclear Missile Launch Sites, by Hans M. Kristensen. From Middle East Quarterly: My Cyber Counter-jihad, by Shannen Rossmiller. From the Spectator: The Cold War Is Back, by Fraser Nelson. From…
The attempts to minimize the role played by al Qaeda in Iraq in the larger Sunni insurgency took a significant step over the past week. Clark Hoyt, the public editor of the New York Times, claimed that the media had become complicit in the government's attempts to paint the entire Sunni insurgency…
This is a Frank Capra/Bell Labs film from 1958. It warns that man's emission of greenhouse gases threaten to warm the Earth's temperature, melt the polar ice caps, and drown much of America--leaving Miami under 150 feet of water:
EIGHTY-TWO YEARS ago this week, Dayton, Tennessee received its summer of fame with Scopes v. State. The town's charming county courthouse bloomed with celebrities--among them, superstar populist William Jennings Bryan, attorney Clarence Darrow, and journalist H.L. Mencken, whose 25,000 words on the…
As Operations Phantom Thunder pushes forward in Baghdad and the Belts, U.S. and Iraqi forces attacked and killed an al Qaeda team attempting to take control of a rural Kurdish village in Diyala. Meanwhile, with critics claiming the U.S. is too al Qaeda focused in its operations, Iraqi and U.S.…
The Lieberman amendment--confronting Iran on its proxy attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq--just passed the Senate unanimously, 97-0. So let's look at the scorecard this week so far: The Webb amendment on trying to limit Iraq deployments went down to defeat. The Lieberman amendment confronting Iran…
As first reported on the WWS yesterday: Senators Lieberman, McCain, Kyl, Graham, and Coleman today introduced a bipartisan amendment to the Defense Authorization Act, confronting the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran over its proxy attacks on American soldiers in Iraq. The amendment…
It's that time of the year. The U.S. is rotating its carriers based in the Persian Gulf, and the media automatically assumes this represents an "escalation of force" as the number of carriers in the region increases. Breathless reporting in the media sensationally mentions there are now three…
Amidst many missteps and revisions, there have been a few running themes to the Democratic 'strategy' on Iraq since the party took back Congress last fall. They've tried to cow the president into drawing down from Iraq while refusing to use their authority to do so--since that would leave them 'on…
The Land of Lincoln book tour comes to San Francisco tonight, when the book's author, WEEKLY STANDARD senior editor Andrew Ferguson, is set to discuss the book and sign copies at 6:00 PM at the Commonwealth Club, 595 Market St. In case your not familiar with the book, here's a little bit about it…
From the Wall Street Journal: Moving Forward in Iraq, by Kimberly Kagan. From Contentions: Letter from the Front, by Max Boot. From the Washington Post: Iraq: Go Deep or Get Out, by Stephen Biddle. From the Washington Times: U.S. Targets Iranian Aid to All Militants, by Sharon Behn. From the New…
There's a debate going on right now about al Qaeda's precise role in the war in Iraq. Just this week, the public editor of the New York Times questioned the proposition that al Qaeda represented "the center of the insurgency" in Iraq. And over at Small Wars Journal, Malcolm Nance asserted that al…
It had always seemed to me that the Lefty blogs were pretty tough, and could both dish out and take some pretty stern stuff. But it seems that Joe Lieberman went over even their line yesterday, according to Election Central, 'he went out of his way to bash' Harry Reid. Kos says that 'Soulless Joe'…
There have been rumors that Senator McCain might change his stance on the war. But lost in the commotion about the turnover in the McCain camp today, McCain gave a speech on the floor of the Senate that reaffirmed his support for the president's new strategy in Iraq, and made clear his deep…
House Republican Whip Roy Blunt spoke this afternoon to an audience at the Heritage Foundation in an address entitled 'Laying the Groundwork for a Revolution.' Blunt set forth the principles that he believes must guide Republican efforts to regain a majority on the Hill. In the main, Blunt…
The Transformers is a strange movie. By any normal standards it should be a mess, but it has a lot of things going for it--not least of which is its awesome depiction of military hardware. The movie includes a bunch of cheesecake shots of the F-22, a satisfying exhibition of the A-10's 30mm cannon…
Senators Byrd and Clinton coauthored a piece for the New York Daily News today calling for Congress to end the American role in "a civil war nobody voted for." Say the senators, If the Bush administration believes that the current war, as it is being executed, is critical to America's future, then…
From National Review: Don't Panic, by the editors. From the New York Post: Interview with General Petraeus, by Ralph Peters. From the Wall Street Journal: Our Own Worst Enemy, by Alexander Haig. From the New York Sun: Americanizing America, by Seth Gitell. From Forward Movement: NYT Cover, by Jules…
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We haven't had an MRAP update here in a while, but there have been some recent developments in the program that are worth noting. MRAP stands for mine resistant ambush protected, and the Army and Marine Corps are currently working to bring more of the vehicles, which offer significantly better…
Harry Reid, July 5: "President Bush and the Iraqis must move now to finally accept a measure of accountability for this war, implement the Iraq Study Group recommendations, transition the mission for our combat troops and start bringing them home from an intractable civil war." And today, the Hill…
Joe Lieberman, you might recall, wrote in the Wall Street Journal last week about Iran's increasingly brazen proxy attacks against American soldiers in Iraq. This week, with the Senate returning from recess and preparing for a new round of "out-of-Iraq" debate focused around the Defense…
I ALWAYS WORRY that readers will be exposed only to large doses of the sort of bad-news stories that seem to dominate the media. So it might be useful to look at the good news lurking in the bad-news headlines.
With Operation Phantom Thunder, the corps level operation in the Baghdad Belts, now underway, Coalition and Iraqi forces continue to work to secure Baghdad as they take on the Mahdi Army, Iranian backed cells, and al Qaeda's networks nationwide. In Anbar province, combat operations are underway in…
Jules Crittenden was at his best over the weekend writing on Sunday's Times editorial, which breathlessly declared "It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit." Here's a taste of Crittenden's response, which dissects…
The House and Senate return from their July 4 recess, and the first thing on the agenda is Iraq. While the news carries stories of Republican Senators further hedging on Iraq, WEEKLY STANDARD editor Bill Kristol argues that signs of progress warrant more patience: Obviously, we have a long way to…
On July 2nd, the Guizhou Metropolis News reported the results of a survey conducted in a "bachelors' village" located in the southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou. In this village of just over 2,100 people there are more than 290 bachelors and, of the 60 single women over the age of 20, all had…
The New York Times leads today with David Sanger's story, "In White House, Debate Is Rising On Iraq Pullback; Political Considerations; Not Waiting For Sept. 15, Aides Seek to Forestall G.O.P. Defections." The piece is tendentious, as one would expect--but THE WEEKLY STANDARD has confirmed that…
From THE DAILY STANDARD: Dissonance at the Times, by Tom Donnelly. From the Wall Street Journal ($): Give the 'Surge' a Chance, by Pete Hegseth. From Ares: JSF Feels The Heat, by Bill Sweetman. From the Fourth Rail: Muqtada al Sadr back in Iran, by Bill Roggio. From FP Passport: Would al Qaeda…
One of the hallmarks of our time is a proliferation of more--and more advanced--electronic devices. Those devices need batteries--and in a variety that seems to be increasing by the day. While that's a nuisance for consumers, it can be life-threatening for a soldier: parttwo-49.jpg From Battery…
On Face the Nation two senators argued over the commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence (among other topics). Utah's Orrin Hatch laid out the Republican case for the president's intervention, arguing that George W. Bush's actions were not nearly as egregious as Bill Clinton's pardons. "I think both…
A Guest in My Own Country
On June 16, Queen Elizabeth announced in the annual birthday honors list that author Salman Rushdie, previously accused of "insulting Islam," would be knighted. At the same time, five Egyptian Muslims, also accused of "insulting Islam," languished in the jails and interrogation rooms of Egyptian…
It takes skill to turn one of the most predictable and anticipated events in political history into a virtual showstopper. It takes something approaching political genius to pull off that feat when you are almost universally regarded as dour, unexciting, and having all the charisma of a mildewed…
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his latest change of political party two weeks ago and cast himself as an innovative anti-politician. "Any successful elected executive knows that real results are more important than partisan battles," he said via press release, "and that good ideas…
A Shadow of Red
A pessimist is a man who doesn't check his mail. I, an optimist, approach my mailbox each morning light of heart and with hope in my step. I also click on my email twelve or fifteen times a day. What, exactly, am I looking for? In a word: offers. I check mail and email in anticipation of offers…
Operation Phantom Thunder, the first real effect of the Iraq troop surge of the past six months, is improving the battlefield situation in Baghdad and the surrounding towns. But in Washington, those who believe the war is already lost--call it the Clinton-Lugar axis--are mounting a surge of their…
How the Quakers Invented America
As Ronald Reagan lay close to death from a gunshot wound on Monday, March 30, 1981, at George Washington University Hospital, he had only three things on his mind. The first was that he wanted to see his beloved Nancy. The second was to try to stay conscious while his lungs filled with blood. This…
Sicko
Indiana senator Richard Lugar is, if he may say so himself, a thoughtful fellow. Not, to be fair, that he quite says so himself. In his speech on the floor of the Senate last Monday night, he simply chose to point out that unnamed others had been engaged in "sloganeering rhetoric and political…
The Supreme Court, in its very last decision of the term, limited the ability of public school districts to use race in determining which schools students may attend. The Court reviewed student assignment plans from Seattle and Louisville. The 5-to-4 decision in the consolidated case generated no…
It was June 26, and Rudy Giuliani was surprised. This was his first visit to Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the headquarters of televangelist and onetime GOP presidential candidate Pat Robertson's media and education efforts. The Regent campus was much larger than Giuliani had…
Hyperpresident--that's what France's leading conservative newspaper, Le Figaro, called Nicolas Sarkozy two weeks ago. Around the same time, the liberal satirical weekly Le Canard enchaîné ran a cartoon featuring a pedalling machine under the president's desk. Caption: "He is even producing energy…
The final scene of the final episode of the long-running HBO hit The Sopranos inspired thousands of fans to go to the Internet's sounding boards to complain about the choice of the series's creator, David Chase, to end it with an inconclusive blackout. For several minutes previously, he had led…
Hubbub
Tax reform has been the Holy Grail of conservative economists since the early 1990s. But after years of conservative ascendance in Washington, the tax code remains a mess.
The new strategy for Iraq has entered its second phase. Now that all of the additional combat forces have arrived in theater, Generals David Petraeus and Ray Odierno have begun Operation Phantom Thunder, a vast and complex effort to disrupt al Qaeda and Shiite militia bases all around Baghdad in…
The what-ifs in the sudden death of immigration reform are intriguing. What if Senate majority leader Harry Reid hadn't pulled the immigration bill from the floor when it was close to passage in early June? What if Republican senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jon Kyl of Arizona had come…
Cruising für ein Bruising
IT IS AN ESPECIALLY cruel but increasingly common irony of the war in Iraq that Washington and Baghdad are in separate universes: what happens over there is not much connected to what's happening back here. But Sunday's New York Times "Week in Review" section sets a new standard for cognitive…
From the Wall Street Journal: GLASGOW -- Last Saturday afternoon, baggage handler John Smeaton was standing in front of Glasgow Airport smoking a cigarette when a Jeep Cherokee burst into flames nearby. He watched its burning driver emerge. A police officer pursued the passenger. What happened next…
Operation Marne Torch, one of the two ongoing operations south of Baghdad that are part of Operation Phantom Thunder, is currently underway in the Arab Jabour region southeast of the capital. Major General Rick Lynch, the commander of Multinational Division Center and the 3rd Infantry Division,…
I've written about the scandal plagued CSAR-X competition here on multiple occasions, but the bottom line is that the competition to replace the Air Force's aging fleet of HH-60 Pave Hawk combat search and rescue (CSAR) helicopters has become something of an embarrassment for the Pentagon.…
Just posted Kimberly Kagan's latest Iraq Report to THE DAILY STANDARD. I'd strongly encourage readers who want to get a better sense of the situation on the ground to read the thing in full. The report covers the early progress of Operation Phantom Thunder, but more significantly, it covers the…
Sen. Joe Lieberman has a must-read op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal. He urges his colleagues in Congress to take a hard line against Iran in order to "restore the fear" of deterrence, "and to inject greater doubt into the decision-making of Iranian leaders about the risks they are now running."…
Despite the shift in control of Congress, there remains some skepticism about the United Nations. The Senate is expected soon to endorse a suspension of U.S. support for the UN Human Rights Council, in response to that body's criticism of Israel--and ONLY Israel--for human rights violations: The…
From the New York Post: Let's Expand Gitmo, by Deroy Murdock. From the Times: Hamas Won the Propaganda War This Week, by Gerard Baker. From the Danger Room: War Costs Soar by a Third; Total Could Top $1.4 Trillion, by Noah Shachtman. From Ares: JSF Wings Spread, by Bill Sweetman. (With great pics,…
With Germany's G8 Summit and rotating EU presidency over, the controversial Bundeswehr mission in Afghanistan has returned to the top of the political agenda in Berlin. On Tuesday this week, Germany's highest court rejected a suit filed by the populist, post-Communist Left party, which claimed that…
The news from Operation Phantom Thunder has been largely subdued over the past 24 hours. The Iraqi government and the Coalition continue to encourage local participation in Salahadin and Diyala provinces. Al Qaeda conducted two successful car bomb attacks in Baiji and Baghdad. U.S. forces maintain…
AT FIRST BLUSH, Gov. Martin O'Malley's May 9 endorsement of Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination seemed impulsive. After all, the 44-year-old former mayor of Baltimore, who restored Maryland to one-party-state status last November when he ousted Republican incumbent Robert…
On June 15, 2007, Generals David Petraeus and Ray Odierno launched the largest coordinated military operation in Iraq since the initial U.S. invasion. The campaign, called Operation Phantom Thunder, aims to expel al Qaeda from its sanctuaries just outside of Baghdad. Denying al Qaeda the ability to…
THE IMMIGRATION BILL is dead, but the immigration issue is alive. And since the thundering herd that opposed the bill offers only stiffer border enforcement as an alternative, it's left to advocates to come up with a better (and less narrow) measure. I don't mean better in some theoretical or…
The boss's latest column for Time is up: About three-quarters of Americans, according to surveys, think the country is on the wrong track. About two-thirds of the public disapprove of the job performance of President Bush, and an even higher number disdain Congress. The media are excited about the…
With the passing of the deadline for reporting second quarter fundraising, the presidential campaigns have been putting the spin on how they've done. Today the Giuliani campaign held a blogger conference call to discuss the results--without much need to spin, it seems. Campaign Manager Mike DuHaime…
From Slate: How To Design a Lincoln Museum, by Andrew Ferguson. From CQ: Missile Defense Plan Faces Roadblocks, by Josh Rogin. From the Washington Post: Sarkozy's Lesson for America, by Newt Gingrich. From the Boston Herald: Our soldiers need allies at home, by Gordon England. From the Fourth Rail:…
The Washington Post runs an extremely confused story today on "the number of unidentified bodies found on the streets of the capital," which the Post says stands at 453 for the month of June, a 41 percent rise over May. Of course, that's the lead, and the story runs under the headline "Body Count…
I've written before on the help that the United States has gotten from Brazilian president Lula Inacio da Silva in dealing with Hugo Chavez. While the United States and Lula's Brazil aren't 'allies,' we've developed a pretty good working relationship based on shared interest. And what do we share…
The Washington Post reports that "Democrats in Congress are building a legislative roadblock to the Bush administration's plan to place elements of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic." The Senate is expected to join the House next week in reducing funds in the fiscal 2008…
Eating 66 Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs in 12 minutes, Joey Chestnut has brought the Yellow Belt back home by defeating Takeru Kobayashi at the Super Bowl of competitive eating events. Kobayashi put up a fight, and despite reports of an arthritic jaw the former champ turned in his best performance to…
SHOULD LAWS AGAINST assisted suicide be rescinded as "paternalistic?" Should assisted suicide be transformed from what is now a crime (in most places) into a sacred "right to die"? Should assisted suicide be redefined from a form of homicide into a legitimate "medical treatment" readily available…
A nice piece from TWS contributor Martin Morse Wooster appeared in yesterday's TCS Daily, seems very appropriate for the holiday. BALTIMORE-It's a lovely early summer day in the Chesapeake Bay, and everyone with a boat knows it's time to grab the bathing suits and some crabs and head for the water.…
We've written before on the plan by Congressional Democrats to turn the page on the Iraq funding debate, and instead talk about... Iraq funding. Today it's reported that as the Senate takes up the annual defense authorization bill next week, the first amendment to be considered will be offered by…
No, class warfare has not broken out in America. And no, there is no "War on the Wealthy." What we are seeing is another of the many adjustments market capitalism makes when excesses become offensive to a broad swathe of quite sensible people in a democracy.
SOMETIMES DIPLOMATS should abandon their diplomacy, negotiators their talks, world leaders their calls for aggressive pursuit of a grand solution. And now is such a time in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. For the foreseeable future, no diplomacy will work, no talks will be…
A must-read obituary in today's New York Times: "Eugene B. Fluckey, 93, a Top Sub Commander, Is Dead" In addition to receiving the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor, he was awarded four Navy Crosses, his service's second-highest decoration. The Joint Army-Navy Assessment…
In a piece for the Wall Street Journal last year, AEI scholar and WEEKLY STANDARD contributor Michael Rubin argued that Iran was trying to turn Iraq into a new Lebanon. Rubin explained: While journalists concentrate on the daily blood, Iraqis describe a larger pattern which U.S. officials have…
Sixteen months after a furor erupted over a bid by Dubai Ports World to manage six major US ports, the House and Senate have both approved legislation to tighten up the approval process for foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies: The Senate passed legislation to revamp the way security threats…
This is a quiet week on Capitol Hill, with both House and Senate taking their Independence Day breaks. (For news about a more compelling July 4th tradition, head over here.) While polls show great dissatisfaction with Congress and its inability to address critical issues, it looks like the House…
Former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui has long rankled Beijing with his assertions that the self-ruling island is an independent country. xinsrc_0220604151357859158849.jpg Xue Yi is arrested at Narita Airport.
There was an interesting debate on Fox News Sunday over the fairness doctrine (the FCC regulation that required broadcasters to give equal time to opposing views and that met its demise 20 years ago). Mike Gallagher, a conservative radio talk show host, offered one possible explanation for renewed…
AT FIRST GLANCE, the bomb conspiracy in London and Glasgow might be seen as a protest against the British knighthood awarded to the novelist Salman Rushdie. The Rushdie honor elicited violent threats from Pakistan, the place of origin of many British Muslims and perhaps the least stable of the…