John on August 31, 2010
Tonight President Obama is formally announcing the end of combat operations in Iraq. The agreement to do this was actually signed by President Bush, but there’s nothing inappropriate in noting that Obama got the job done. That level of political grandstanding is expected of any politician. But Obama famously predicted that the surge would be a failure. This was during the darkest days of the war in early 2007. Casualty [...]
Read More
9 Comments
John on August 12, 2010
On June 4th, 2009 President Obama gave a speech in Cairo in which he asked for a “new beginning” in international relations between the US and Islam. It was to be “based upon mutual interest and mutual respect.” According to Robert Gibbs, it was a self-conscious break from the policies of the previous decade, i.e. the Bush years. Reaction to the speech was mostly positive, at least here in the [...]
Read More
No Comment Yet
John on August 11, 2010
I’m being semi-sarcastic. The Telegraph reports that this latest provocation may be a sign that some of the sanctions are working as the Iranians seem slightly more pissed off than usual: “The mass graves that used to be for burying Saddam’s soldiers have now been prepared again for US soldiers, and this is the reason for digging this big number of graves,” Gen Moghadam told the Associated Press, which obtained [...]
Read More
No Comment Yet
John on August 5, 2010
Joe Klein has a piece up declaring our everlasting failure in Iraq. Here’s what the same junk would sound like circa 1945: There is no “victory” in Germany, nor will there be. There is something resembling stability, for now. There is a semblance of democracy, but that may dissolve over time into a Fascist dictatorship — which, if not well run, could yield to the near inevitable military coup. Yes, [...]
Read More
No Comment Yet
John on August 4, 2010
The NY Times calls it a monument to tolerance. That’s spin, but in some sense it’s also true. Most of the world would never allow something like this to happen. But that’s certainly not what the mosque is intended to be by it’s founders and those who are going to pay to have it built (whoever they are). Since we’re in the business here of offering opinions on controversial topics, [...]
Read More
4 Comments
Morgen on July 7, 2010
Exercising their right to be detestable: This group calls themselves Bay Area Veterans Against the War but if there are even many genuine veterans within their ranks it’s clear that what they are really against is America.
Read More
8 Comments
John on June 15, 2010
I’m sure there’s a rational argument for this, I’m just not sure what it could be: Sometimes, things are exactly what they seem to be. In this case, it sure seems like we’re effectively ceding US sovereignty to violent gangs from Mexico. You issue travel warning for people going abroad, not for people inside your own nation. This is a really bad idea as it will inevitably embolden the thugs [...]
Read More
3 Comments
John on May 31, 2010
No matter how you feel about Israel or Gaza, this is not a good situation. Der Spiegel summarizes the problem: The pro-Palestinian organizers had described the fleet with which they had hoped to break through the Israeli sea blockade of the Gaza Strip on Monday morning as a “humanitarian aid convoy.” But as the Israeli army stormed the largest ship, the Mavi Marmara, the activists they encountered were in no [...]
Read More
4 Comments
John on May 30, 2010
From the Daily Mail: At least sixty five people were killed and 200 injured when a bomb apparently planted by Maoist rebels derailed an overnight passenger train in India, causing it to crash into an oncoming cargo train. The high-speed train was travelling from Calcutta to the Mumbai suburb of Kurla this morning when 13 cars derailed in a rural part of West Bengal state near the small town of [...]
Read More
One Comment
Morgen on May 21, 2010
I was incredibly moved by this: Thanks to all of our American heroes who serve at the cost of separation from family and other loved ones, but especially to our troops overseas. God bless you all. (H/T Ace)
Read More
5 Comments
John on May 5, 2010
From the Daily Mail: After months of dithering over how to rein in its vast deficit, the Greek government has been forced to plead for a £93billion international bail-out package and implement hugely unpopular austerity measures, to be voted on today. Amid the rioting, the euro plunged, stock markets crashed and German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted the very ‘future of Europe’ was at stake. [...] In the most horrific incident, [...]
Read More
One Comment
John on April 28, 2010
It’s so simple: You can click for a full size image, but it won’t help. This may be why General James N. Mattis recently said “Power Point makes us stupid.”
Read More
3 Comments
Morgen on April 1, 2010
John linked this yesterday in our “Around the Web” section, but I wanted to call extra attention to Mark Bowden’s masterful profile of General Petraeus in the April issue of Vanity Fair. If there is a better writer-journalist than Bowden I cannot think of who it might be. Yes, his portrayal of Petraeus is on the whole very positive, but it is credibly so, based on the quality of research, [...]
Read More
No Comment Yet
Morgen on March 15, 2010
Allies? Who needs allies? From today’s Sydney Morning Herald (emphasis added): Barack Obama’s trip to Australia is going ahead but his 24-hour visit will be contained to Canberra. The US President will address Federal Parliament on March 26 after flying from Bali the day before and dining with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at the Lodge. Mr Obama’s shortened itinerary – which allows him to spend more time in Indonesia – [...]
Read More
No Comment Yet
John on March 15, 2010
It’s titled “Losing Faith in the Messiah” and boy is this going to leave a mark: Never before had a US president enjoyed such trust in the Middle East — and gambled it away in such a short time. Obama has vacillated to an extent that has confused friend and foe alike, even baffling veteran observers of the region. And then it gets worse, much worse: Obama’s failure in the [...]
Read More
No Comment Yet
John on February 11, 2010
I’m typing angry right now… Back in January of 2007 when President Bush first proposed the surge in Iraq, Joe Biden had this to say: “I believe the president’s strategy is not a solution,” Biden, a Delaware Democrat, said at a congressional hearing at which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to testify about Bush’s plan to send 21,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq. “I believe it’s a tragic mistake,” [...]
Read More
6 Comments
John on February 10, 2010
Foreign Policy has an interesting list of the most repressive regimes on earth (they call them the “least free” places). I thought it might be interesting to make a chart showing the country along with the guiding political system and the dominant religion. So here it is: Sort of interesting. I’d say the two recurring themes are Marxism (usually atheist) and Islam. I tried to note when there was a [...]
Read More
7 Comments
John on January 22, 2010
From the Daily Mail: No one believed that Elisabeth Joassaint could have lived as the family home was crushed by the weight of its upper storey. It was a full seven days later that a French rescue team returned to the ruins to search for the baby’s body – and heard faint cries. Incredibly, Elisabeth was alive in a tiny hollow beneath the devastation, still lying on the bed where [...]
Read More
5 Comments
John on January 15, 2010
If you’ve watched the TV show Heroes over the last couple years, you know of a character who is simply known as “The Haitian” who has the ability to make people forget. Jimmy Jean-Louis, the actor who plays the Haitian, really is from Haiti and has family there: I’ve already made my first donation to the Red Cross. I’m committed to making a second donation as well. If you haven’t [...]
Read More
No Comment Yet
John on January 14, 2010
The scale of the damage is pretty stunning. Here is the daily UN report on the situation (pdf). They do not have a handle on the scale of this yet, but arrangements are already being made to ship in massive amounts of food and supplies from a staging area in Panama. I’ve decided to make a donation toward the relief effort. I hope some of you will join me (if [...]
Read More
One Comment
