This Tom Friedman column surprised me, but it was a pleasant surprise. Several bloggers have highlighted it, and I want to do so too, because it says some things that really need to be said—not that Obama will say them. … Continue reading →
A man, no plan, a war, Afghanistan. That may not be a proper palindrome, but it describes the relation between President Obama and the Afghan War: According to McClatchy, some members of McChrystal’s staff said they don’t understand why Obama … Continue reading →
I don’t think he is (at least not in the way you’d imagine). But Leslie Gelb does: I’m lost on President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan policy””along with most of Congress and the U.S. military. Not quite eight months ago, Mr. Obama … Continue reading →
Obama’s first Polish joke was snubbing the September 1st ceremonies in Gdansk marking the seventieth anniversary of the German invasion of Poland. Let’s review: The lack of understanding of European history and sensitivities was not lost on the Polish chattering … Continue reading →
Campaign ad received in an email from a friend. Stick with it till the end.
Continue reading →I can think of no better song for Memorial Day than Tim McGraw’s “If You’re Reading This“:
Continue reading →Before Memorial Day became a national three-day weekend in 1971 and the official kickoff to summer festivities, it was Decoration Day. I’m not all that ancient, but my earliest recollection of the holiday is of the latter name. It was … Continue reading →
By now the consensus is that Hillary’s red phone ad probably helped her comeback on Super Tuesday Two. The ad was controversial but traditional, in the mold of a famous ad Walter Mondale used against Gary Hart in 1984, and … Continue reading →
First we had the new counterinsurgency manual. Now the army has a new operations manual with an emphasis on postwar stabilization. This is referred to as a “newly minted doctrine” and “a major development that draws on the hard-learned lessons … Continue reading →
Well, not really. But Iowahawk’s clever satire about journalists run amok makes a good point about the absurdity of the recent NY Times article on crimes committed by returning vets. That Times piece is an excellent example of failure to … Continue reading →
On a recent thread here about General Petraeus there was a discussion in the comments section regarding General Shinseki’s original suggestion that higher troop levels would be needed in Iraq. As part of that back-and-forth, commenter Mitsu wrote: …had we … Continue reading →
Yes, indeed, I am that old—old enough to remember when Veterans Day was called Armistice Day. The change in names occurred in 1954, when I was very small, in order to accommodate World War II and its veterans. Since then, … Continue reading →