Decision ‘08

Archive for 'Iraq'

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

In Iraq, The Glass Is Always Half Empty…

…when you’re a Democrat:
Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what […]

22 Comments » - Posted in Elephants, Donkeys, Iraq by Mark

Wednesday, August 15th, 2007

The Summertime Blues

Ain’t no cure for what ails the Dow, apparently, as the DJIA closes below 13,000 in the midst of continued fears of a credit meltdown sparked by subprime mortgages. And from Iraq, truly appalling news, as the death toll from yesterday’s bombings may have reached 500 or more. A major catastrophe, by any standards…I’m never […]

8 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, Radical Islam / GWOT, Iraq by Mark

Monday, August 6th, 2007

Opinion Shifting On Iraq?

The latest Gallup poll shows a 9-point shift towards the view that the surge is making things better in Iraq. That’s the good news. The bad news is that this is still a minority opinion by a good margin:
USA TODAY’s Susan Page reports that President Bush is making some headway in arguing that the […]

4 Comments » - Posted in Rudy Giuliani, Iraq, Hillary Clinton, 2008 Polls, Republican Candidates, Democratic Candidates by Mark

Sunday, July 29th, 2007

Some Good News For Iraq, From An Unlikely Source

It may not mean much to Americans, but never underestimate the power of soccer to uplift a country. Iraq is now the proud Asian Football Cup champion for the first time ever:
A thumping header by Iraq’s Younis Mahmoud Khalaf in Jakarta, Indonesia, set off blasts of jubilant gunfire Sunday nearly 5,000 miles away in Baghdad, […]

5 Comments » - Posted in Iraq, Celebrities / Pop Culture / Sports by Mark

Thursday, July 19th, 2007

The Plame Game Has Run Its Course

With the commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence, and now the dismissal of the Plame lawsuit against the Bush administration, surely even the most diehard conspiracy theorist can see that this thing is now officially over:
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by outed spy Valerie Plame and her husband against Vice President Dick Cheney […]

11 Comments » - Posted in PlameGate, Celebrities / Pop Culture / Sports by Mark

Wednesday, July 18th, 2007

Dirty Harry The Self-Indulgent

One of the signs of either (a) the delusional true believer, or (b) the complete hack is the unwillingness to accept reality as it is. Many have accused our Commander-in-Chief of this flaw, but it certainly applies to his opponents. Witness the reaction from the lefty blogosphere’s leading lights to the latest Republican […]

15 Comments » - Posted in Harry Reid, Elephants, Donkeys, Iraq, Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots® by Mark

Thursday, July 12th, 2007

What In The World Are We Going To Do About Iraq?

I ask the question with a considerable amount of foreboding; as you all know, I supported the war, I support the surge, and I think we have to prepare to be in Iraq for a good long while - years, in fact. Nevertheless, the political will is crumbling by the day, and today’s Interim […]

19 Comments » - Posted in Donkeys, Elephants, Iraq, Rudy Giuliani, Hillary Clinton, Election 2008 by Mark

Monday, July 2nd, 2007

The Libby Commutation: The Best Possible Outcome

It’s official: Scooter Libby will not go to prison.
President Bush today commuted the prison sentence of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff, sparing him the 30-month term to which he was sentenced last month for lying to federal investigators about his role in the White House leak of a CIA […]

30 Comments » - Posted in PlameGate, POTUS by Mark

Monday, June 18th, 2007

And You Thought I Could Resist This?

Okay, it’s Hitchens, first of all, and the subject is the absurdity of the Scooter Libby affair, in the second place, so the odds that I wouldn’t blog it are Slim and None - and Slim just left town:
If Scooter Libby goes to jail, it will be because he made a telephone call to Tim […]

9 Comments » - Posted in Hitchens the Great, PlameGate by Mark

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

We’ll Mark You Down As “Not A Fan”

George Will on Harry Reid’s transparently phony excuse for pulling the immigration bill:
Harry Reid, the Senate’s majority leader and resident Uriah Heep, affected ‘umble and syrupy sadness about the Senate’s inability to pass the immigration bill that he pulled from the floor last Thursday evening for a transparently meretricious reason. Saying the Senate’s time was […]

5 Comments » - Posted in Domestic Affairs, Harry Reid, Donkeys, Iraq, Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots® by Mark

Saturday, June 9th, 2007

Free Libby? Yes, Says William F. Buckley

The grand old man of the Grand Ol’ Party speaks:
The talk about a pardon for Lewis Libby is food for thought. Partisans are grateful that there is time, even if not much time, to think, pending the appeals that are under way challenging the conviction at a technical level.
There isn’t much to hope for here […]

22 Comments » - Posted in PlameGate by Mark

Sunday, June 3rd, 2007

Of Course, You Know, This Means War

War! War! That will be the topic de jure, of course, in tonight’s Democratic debate. CNN has a preview:
What will New Hampshire voters be listening for when 18 presidential hopefuls square off Sunday and Tuesday in presidential debates? It depends on whom you ask, but on one issue, there is widespread agreement: People […]

4 Comments » - Posted in Elephants, Donkeys, Iraq by Mark

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

Plame - Covert Status Proved At Last By Prosecutor’s Bald Assertion

Was Valerie Plame covert? (Ye gods, this again?) Well, the lefty blogosphere is abuzz with the final ‘proof’ - proof that consists of an assertion by the prosecutor in a court filing:
Newsweek has an interesting view of the law, and the usual suspects amongst the lefty bloggers are falling in line behind it - when […]

31 Comments » - Posted in PlameGate by Mark

Friday, May 25th, 2007

A Most Unwelcome Return…And A Very Welcome Departure

He’s back, unfortunately:
Moqtada al-Sadr is back. After months away from the public eye, the young firebrand participated in Friday prayers at a mosque in Kufa, Iraq.
“No, no to the unjust! No, no to America! No, no to colonialism! No, no to Israel! No, no to Satan,” he said, according to AFP.
Sadr renewed his demand […]

19 Comments » - Posted in PlameGate, Radical Islam / GWOT, Iraq, Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots®, Celebrities / Pop Culture / Sports by Mark

Thursday, May 24th, 2007

The Little Libertarian

Ron Paul’s reading list is as pathetic as his presidential campaign - how do we know this? Because he gave us a preview as he attempted to ’school’ the public figure who was on the spot at the heart of Ground Zero on the finer points of terrorism by recommending that he read…wait for it…Chalmers […]

43 Comments » - Posted in Iraq, Radical Islam / GWOT, Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots®, Rudy Giuliani, Republican Candidates, Election 2008 by Mark

Sunday, May 13th, 2007

The Truest Of Friends

I have not had an opportunity yet to blog about the impending departure of Tony Blair, but I look at his approaching retirement from office as a giant blow to our interests worldwide. America and Britain have always had a ’special’ relationship (explained at great length and with the typical Hitchens erudition here), but Blair […]

4 Comments » - Posted in Radical Islam / GWOT, Iraq, Foreign Affairs by Mark

Wednesday, May 9th, 2007

Bush Promises To Veto New House Plan

The Democrats are still trying to find a way to placate the left without seeming unwilling to support the troops, and their latest proposal would pony up half of the needed war appropriations now and half in July, provided certain benchmarks are met. Bush is not having any of it:
President Bush would veto the new […]

No Comments » - Posted in POTUS, Donkeys, Iraq by Mark

Sunday, May 6th, 2007

The Times Says Bring ‘Em Home

Well, what’s new about that, you might ask? The Times gave up long ago. First, to the editorial:
WHATEVER THE future holds, the United States has not “lost” and cannot “lose” Iraq. It was never ours in the first place. And however history will judge the war, some key U.S. goals have been accomplished: Saddam Hussein […]

7 Comments » - Posted in Iraq, NY Times/Media Watch by Mark

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007

Some Good News Out Of Iraq Today…

…as the oil revenue sharing plan has finally been sent to Parliament:
Iraq’s oil minister says a long-awaited draft oil and gas law has been sent to parliament for approval.
The bill, seen as crucial in regulating how oil wealth is divided among Iraq’s ethnic and religious groups, received cabinet backing in February.
A dispute between […]

4 Comments » - Posted in Iraq by Mark

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

That Just About Sums It Up

From President Bush’s address tonight:
Here’s why the bill Congress passed is unacceptable. First, the bill would mandate a rigid and artificial deadline for American troops to begin withdrawing from Iraq. That withdrawal could start as early as July 1st, and it would have to start no later than October 1st regardless of the situation on […]