All That Is Necessary

Tag: Iraq

  • Nice to See an Oscar for a Largely Pro-U.S. War Movie

    College buddy Tom Streithorst is out with an article in the UK’s Prospect Magazine titled “Why The Hurt Locker shouldn’t have won,” based on Tom’s extensive experience as a journalist embedded with U.S. forces in Iraq.  Tom’s thesis is that although some aspects of the movie are outstanding, it is marred by an unrealistic portrayal […]

  • Newsweek Declares Victory in Iraq

    Something that looks mighty like democracy is emerging in Iraq.

  • Biden Was Right About Obama’s “Great Achievement”

    I assert that "not screwing up Iraq" is a non-trivial achievement — and certainly a much better outcome than many of us feared before the election.

  • Ajami, on Taking the War into the Arab World

    President Obama, who seized hold of the "good war" as a club to batter Bush’s "bad war," has little choice other than to give the strategy that succeeded in Iraq a chance to succeed in Afghanistan.

  • George Will Bails Out on Another War

    The strategy that so clearly has worked in Iraq deserves an opportunity to succeed in Afghanistan as well.

  • God Knows: An IED in Iraq Shows Who, How, and Why We Fight

    My point here is not to advocate waterboarding, a practice I oppose. To paraphrase a recent American president, my point is that good and evil both exist in the world — and the God of my understanding is not neutral between them.

  • Obama Pays for Gates-gate in the Rasmussen Poll

    President Obama has slipped to the worst rating of his young presidency in the daily Rasmussen Presidential Tracking Poll, weighing in at -11 points.  That’s based on likely voters with strong opinions.  He fares better when you look at total approvers vs. total disapprovers — although for the first time, or at least the first […]

  • Don’t Overlook the Good News in Iraq

    In the midst of Bernie Madoff, Governor Sanford, cap-and-tax, unrest in Iran and the continuing deceasement of MJ, take a moment to note a happy milestone: The orderly, scheduled withdrawal today of American troops from major cities in Iraq, turning over primary responsibility to the Iraqi security forces. Here’s Ralph Peters today in  the New […]

  • OK, Let’s Have A Fact-Finding Commission On Torture

    The Washington Post offers the best argument I’ve seen for a bipartisan commission into the use of torture, or “torture” if you prefer, by Americans during the Bush Administration.  The editorial ends with this (emphasis added): But a presidential commission could produce the fullest, least-heated account possible. Once it did so, prosecutions would not be […]

  • Slouching Towards Europe: Obama’s Domestic Agenda Undercuts American Exceptionalism

    I’ve been pleasantly surprised by President Obama’s steadfastness regarding national security issues.  After winning his party’s nomination by promising to surrender in Iraq more quickly than the other Democrats would, Obama has: retained his predecessor’s defense secretary; adopted his predecessor’s timetable for responsible disengagement in Iraq; supported his own rhetoric about the importance of Afghanistan […]