I’m a bit underwhelmed by the Iraq Study Group report “The Way Forward: A New Approach” (see this and this). It reminds me of the usual recommendations by committee; you’re familiar with the genre, I’m sure. “New approach?” Hardly. I … Continue reading →
Michael Barone is one who doesn’t see Bush’s promise to persevere in Iraq as a joke and/or a travesty and/or an outrage. Neither does John McCain, who disagrees with the details of Bush’s policy, but sees “staying the course” with … Continue reading →
[Part I here] Whatever your opinion of President Nixon’s politics and policies, I think most of us can agree he was a strange and duplicitous man. I was not a fan, to say the least. I watched many of his … Continue reading →
Wars tend to be hard on Presidents as well as on nations. Lincoln barely survived the Civil War before he was assassinated. Wilson’s health permanently deteriorated in the immediate aftermath of WWI, when he undertook a grueling speaking tour in … Continue reading →
Here’s another demonstration of the Law of Thirds (via Pajamas Media) It’s a post by Bill Roggio that analyzes what the midterm election might mean in terms of future policy on the Iraq War. He cites STRATFOR analyst Fred Burton, … Continue reading →
Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to hanging. Nothing is likely to save him, not even the antics of lawyer Ramsey Clark, who was thrown out of the courtroom yesterday for disrespect. But despite all the charges against him, no one’s … Continue reading →
The Thirty Years War of 1618-1648 was the last major religious war in Europe, and it was a lulu. I challenge anyone who’s not already a student of European history to wade through that Wikipedia article linked above–it’s dense with … Continue reading →
The thread on Iraqi federalism inspired a debate in the comments section about whether Iraq is facing a civil war or a religious war, or neither, or both. Perhaps it’s just a question of semantics. We could (and no doubt … Continue reading →
The Iraqi Parliament has passed a law allowing for the establishment of federal regions in Iraq. This isn’t the sort of thing that makes good sound bites or titillating headlines. Its real effect on the course of history in Iraq … Continue reading →
Bob Woodward has done an about-face from the relatively Bush-approving stance of his last two books on the administration. The present one, State of Denial, is by all accounts a description of a quarrelsome and conflict-ridden administration, with Rumsfeld, Cheney, … Continue reading →
Today there was a car bomb attack in Iraq characterized as the largest terrorist act there since May, when the new government took office. Over sixty people were killed in the blast, which occurred in a street market located in … Continue reading →
Both before and after we invaded Iraq, one of our problems was lack of good intelligence from inside that country. Many of our advisors were Iraqi expatriates whose information was out-of-date and not necessarily reliable, and Iraq itself seemed opaque … Continue reading →