How can one evaluate a war if you’re opposed to war in general, and particularly opposed to the war you’re evaluating? I expect the answer is that you can’t. Undaunted, I continue to try to figure it out. I don’t think anyone would say that listening to President Bush or General Petraeus is the best […]
Some people just can’t get enough of a good thing – in this case, graphs. I kept wondering about the effect of troop levels on the course of the Iraq War. So I found the most accurate set of figures I could locate [Brookings Institute] and graphed them to the same scale as the recent […]
a loophole The term, "loophole" [synonym embrasure] comes from a slit in the wall of a fortress [above] for an archer can shoot out but is almost impossible to shoot. So it’s a term for how a virtually invulnerable warrior can remain protected while reining death and destruction on anyone who approaches. Military architecture is […]
cloture – The only procedure by which the Senate can vote to place a time limit on consideration of a bill or other matter, and thereby overcome a filibuster. Under the cloture rule (Rule XXII), the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours, but only by vote of three-fifths of the full […]
In my last post, I compared General Petraeus’ slides to the Pentagon Report issued yesterday. In this post, I continue parsing their data by looking at two of their stacked bar graphs – notorious for obfuscation [though unlike General Petraeus, the Pentagon Report seemed to me like a genuine attempt to play it straight]. First, […]
Shocked (superscript 2) Turns out the Pentagon’s newly released numbers on civilian casualties in Iraq contradict the numbers Gen. Petraeus was hawking just last week. Bringeth me my smelling salts … Intrigued, I followed Josh Marshall’s [TPM] link. There, I found a reference to General Petraeus’ slides [see Iraqi Civilian Deaths – upper left in […]
So, I’m intrigued by this Alexis Debat story. I’m a retired Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst. It makes sense that I would be interested in such a story. Here’s a foreign guy who passes himself off as an expert for literally years, and comes out with some really "loud" stories that were very risky if he’s a […]
El Baradei Fights Off Drumbeat For Iran War, Warns Pre-War Iraq Failures Are Being Repeated The leading voice of restraint thus far has been Mohamed El Baradei, the head of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency. Today, Baradei chastised Kouchner, saying “I would not talk about any use of force” except as a last resort. […]
No rush for Mukasey confirmation hearing, say Dems President Bush’s choice of Michael Mukasey as the next attorney general won early praise Monday, but Democrats appeared ready to take their time on a confirmation hearing until the administration plays ball on subpoenaed documents that it continues to withhold. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) […]