It’s easy and perversely comforting to think of the world as bipolar. Good vs. Evil. Communist vs. Capitalist. Democratic vs. Autocratic. USA vs. Russia. But the world isn’t so simple (despite what John McCain may think).
Despite whatever comfort simplified labels give us, Russia is not an evil imperial power hellbent on invading all of Europe. [...]
Remember back in 2006 when Israel invaded Lebanon because of a border skirmish? Back then, the international community condemned Israel for their disproportionate military response.
This was what George Bush had to say back then:
The recent crisis in the region was triggered by the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by the terrorist group Hezbollah and the launch [...]
The Bush administration has been shameless when it comes to naming their programs and policies. The PATRIOT Act destroys civil liberties, the Clear Skies Initiative reduces air pollution controls, Operation Iraqi Freedom put Iraqis under US military control, etc.
We’ve long needed a guide to these insults to language and logic, and Spencer Ackerman’s Iraq Euphemism [...]
From the New York Times:
“The Iraqi government now has tens of billions of dollars at its disposal to fund large scale reconstruction projects,” said Mr. Levin, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in the statement. “It is inexcusable for U.S. taxpayers to continue to foot the bill for projects the Iraqis are [...]
“This is a clear choice that the American people have. I had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.” - John McCain
This quote from McCain is [...]
I’m going to be bold here and say we’re going to look back at this week as a milestone. It’ll be the week - drumroll please - Obama ended the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
Pretty amazing for someone who isn’t even the president yet. But how did Obama do it? Let me explain…
This weekend Iraqi Prime [...]
(Updated Below)
I thought it’d be nice to start off today with a great quote:
“Maybe a race of alien lizards will land in Mosul and commence their program of world conquest, in which case it would be odd to stick with the 16 month withdrawal timeline…” - Matthew Yglesias
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Update
Obama has been busy this week reinforcing his [...]
(Updated below)
The Joe Liebermans of the world want you to be very afraid of Iran. They want you to think that every day brings with it the possibility of our destruction at the hands of the Iranians.
That’s simply an exaggeration, similar to the ones made about Saddam’s Iraq prior to our invasion. Remember the Bush [...]
Juan Cole compiles the numbers for us:
By now, summer of 2008, excess deaths from violence in Iraq since March of 2003 must be at least a million. This conclusion can be reached more than one way. There is not much controversy about it in the scientific community. Some 310,000 of those were [...]
The always emotional Arthur Sibler wants us to keep the impending FISA “compromise” law in perspective. He’s not saying we should support the Democrats and Obama despite their betrayal (or cowardice), because they are the lesser of two evils. What he is saying is that we ceded the right to privacy long ago:
I do not [...]