Michael Totten writes about a group of Iraqis who not only welcomed the US invasion (they refuse to use the “i”-word, though; they consider the event to have been strictly a liberation), but love America and Americans to this day: … Continue reading →
Today’s NY Times prominently highlights a speech by retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, ex-Commander of US forces in Iraq, in which he is deeply critical of the conduct of the Iraq War. The Times summarizes Sanchez’s speech in its lede … Continue reading →
Here’s an interesting summary of events in Iraq so far, bound to infuriate those who believe the whole thing is obviously a failed enterprise. The annoyances begin with its title, “Mission Accomplished,” harking back to that infamous banner on the … Continue reading →
The antiwar faction of the Democratic Party seems troubled. How, when things looked so bright back in November of last year, could it have all gone so horribly wrong? It’s not that they’re about to give up pressuring those swing … Continue reading →
When I began my blog, I knew I wanted to specialize in trying to explain how change of mind—especially in the political sense—happens. I’ve written here how therapy involves change on three dimensions—mind, emotions, and action—and how intervention on any … Continue reading →
Georgia will be sending 1200 troops to Iraq to patrol the border with Iran to beef up the effort to keep weapons out. No, not that Georgia. This Georgia: This makes it the third largest coalition force there, after the … Continue reading →
[Part I here.] The 60s in Vietnam represented a sea-change in attitude towards the military, and not only on the fringes of the Left. Respected mainstream jounalists began to see their task less as transmitting information and more as questioning … Continue reading →
I’ve likened the political machinations around the surge to theater. And today, as we await General Petraeus’s testimony, the usual players are taking on their customary roles. The MoveOn Left continues to consider it important to disqualify Petraeus as a … Continue reading →
It’s become common wisdom to say one of the many huge mistakes of the postwar era in Iraq was to disband the army. But it’s always puzzled me that so many people seem to think it’s a self-evident truth. I’ve … Continue reading →
Remember those tests of perception known as figure/ground drawings? As a child I was fascinated by their magical “now you see it, now you see something else” mutability. Here are two of the most popular—the vase/profiles one and the young … Continue reading →
Bush’s speech yesterday seems to have spawned a further opening of that wound that’s never really closed, the Vietnam War. Bush’s critics are incensed: after all, Iraq/Vietnam is their analogy, always good for a negative spin on what we’re doing … Continue reading →
In today’s speech in Kansas City to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, President Bush gave the reconstruction efforts in Iraq the historical context some of us have been writing about for some time: the need to avoid the sort of … Continue reading →