Tag Archive 'Iraq'
Bookworm on Sep 28 2012 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Leftist morality, Pakistan
Tweet Back in 2004, when George Bush was president, Michael Moore compared al Qaeda terrorists to American Minutemen: The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not “insurgents” or “terrorists” or “The Enemy.” They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win. Moore’s shallow brain and [...]
Bookworm on Jun 11 2012 | Filed under: Books, Military
Tweet Within the last two weeks, I’ve read two Navy SEAL books: Marcus Luttrell’s Service: A Navy SEAL at War and Chris Kyle’s American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. The books have a lot of similarities, separate from the fact that both are books about SEALS seeing service [...]
Bookworm on May 28 2012 | Filed under: Books, Iraq, Military
Tweet I promise that this post will be a review of Marcus Luttrell’s Service: A Navy SEAL at War. First, though, I have to start with the ridiculous, before I can give proper context, not to the sublime (because war isn’t sublime), but to the important and meaningful. The ridiculous is, of course, MSNBC’s own [...]
Bookworm on May 03 2012 | Filed under: Barack Obama
Tweet A few days ago, the New York Times ran an article assuring everyone that Barack Obama isn’t a wuss, he’s a warrior. I have only a couple of points. First, considering that Obama has been and is such an aggressive President, one who has seen more troops die on his watch in Afghanistan than [...]
Bookworm on Jan 13 2012 | Filed under: Military
Tweet Boys are born equipped with this neat little toy. Amongst its many enjoyable attributes, you can write your name in the snow with it. There are lots of other things you can do with it. Long hikes without pit stops? No problem. Use a tree or, if you’re adventurous, see if you can fill [...]
Bookworm on Jan 11 2012 | Filed under: Afghanistan, Iraq, World War II
Tweet A friend sent me a link to an editorial bemoaning the fact that, by abruptly pulling out from Iraq and, soon, Afghanistan, the Obama administration is ensuring that we’re leaving a job undone — something that invariably means one has to do it again. If history is going to keep repeating itself, why can’t [...]
Bookworm on Dec 06 2011 | Filed under: Freedom, Islam
Tweet Was it a surprise to you that Egypt went Islamist? It wasn’t to me. Was it a surprise to you that Libya went Islamist? It wasn’t to me. Was it a surprise to you that Tunisia went Islamist? It wasn’t to me. Has it been a surprise to you over the last decade that [...]
Bookworm on Nov 01 2010 | Filed under: Christians, Crime and punishment, Immigration, Iraq, Islam, Muslim violence
Tweet I was very surprised to see an AP wire story reporting that Islamic militants (as opposed to mere “militants” or “insurgents”) were holding “Christians” (as opposed to mere “people”) hostage. Even more surprising, the AP reported that the Islamic militants were probably affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq, an entity one apparently couldn’t acknowledge [...]
Bookworm on Apr 07 2010 | Filed under: Military
Tweet “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” — attr. to various generals at the Battle of Bunker Hill (although it has a longer pedigree than that). Liberals have been orgasmically excited by a video that Wikileak published showing a 2007 shootout in Baghdad, during which two Reuters stringers died. Wikileaks contends [...]
Bookworm on Nov 16 2009 | Filed under: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Military
Tweet Here’s our Commander in Chief speaking of the situation in Afghanistan while he was running for office: “We’ve got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we’re not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there.” This post is not [...]
Bookworm on Jun 26 2009 | Filed under: Anti-war, Media matters
Tweet Movie review one: The movie is a viscerally exciting, adrenaline-soaked tour de force of suspense and surprise, full of explosions and hectic scenes of combat, but it blows a hole in the condescending assumption that such effects are just empty spectacle or mindless noise. [snip] Ms. Bigelow, practicing a kind of hyperbolic realism, distills [...]
Bookworm on Jun 03 2009 | Filed under: Iran, Israel
Tweet I’ve always loved that quintessential little kid excuse: “But, Mommy, he hit me back first….” Even kids understand, although they don’t always appreciate, the notion of a preemptive strike. Lately, there’s more and more talk about Israel engaging in a preemptive strike against Iran (cheered by friends, feared by foes). George Bush painted our [...]
Bookworm on Mar 08 2009 | Filed under: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Iraq, Military
Tweet Greyhawk is trying to put the pieces together in Iraq and Afghanistan when it comes to troop rotation. Right now, on the information available, it looks as if their’s some sleight of hand going on with regarding to troop movements and the American public. What do you think? In the mid-19th Century, Palmerston called [...]
Bookworm on Nov 25 2008 | Filed under: Arabs, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Israel, Saudi Arabia, United Nations
Tweet The head of the UN General Assembly just called Israel an “apartheid” state. In other words, Israel is emblematic of evil in the world. I’ve finally realized what the problem is: Israel has a mixed population. Think about it: Iraq expelled her Jews and hounded her Christians into obscurity. Saudi Arabia makes it illegal [...]
Bookworm on Oct 14 2008 | Filed under: Iraq, Military
Tweet We all know that in the news world, “man bites dog” gets the front page, while “dog bites man” is ignored. In a twisted way, then, one could say that the wall-to-wall Abu Ghraib coverage reflected the media’s horror that the American military had morphed from honor to dishonor. (Or we could be realistic [...]
Bookworm on Sep 19 2008 | Filed under: Iraq, Military
Tweet There’s a good news article in the SF Chronicle today, and one that also has a one interesting point and one missing point. First, the good news: A local Marine battalion just returned home yesterday, safe and sound, from its fifth tour of duty: Number five was relatively easy. The Marine battalion that has [...]
Bookworm on Sep 17 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Iraq
Tweet Two days ago, word broke that Barack Obama, despite myriad campaign promises to bring the troops home from Iraq as soon as possible, tried to derail withdrawal talks in order to advance his own political agenda. Yesterday, Barack Obama issued a weirdly phrased denial that called Amir Taheri (the journalist who broke the story) [...]
Bookworm on Sep 15 2008 | Filed under: Anti-war, Barack Obama, Iraq
Tweet Treason is a pretty simple concept. Here are a few choice definitions: A violation of allegiance to one’s sovereign or to one’s state. Violation of allegiance toward one’s country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one’s country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies. 1. a [...]
Bookworm on Jul 30 2008 | Filed under: Anti-war, Barack Obama, Iraq
Tweet Before today, I hadn’t heard of Frank Turek. After today, I’m going to keep an eye out for his articles. He’s written a really splendid article explaining how deeply, terribly wrong Obama’s every position is regarding Iraq. Frankly, for those who are well-informed, there’s nothing in this article you haven’t seen before. I’m just [...]
Bookworm on Jul 25 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, John McCain, Media matters
Tweet The LA Times has mounted a spirited defense against the ever increasing volume of reader complaints the Times is getting about its loving coverage of Obama, especially when contrasted with the fact that its McCain coverage is minimal and fairly hostile. Here’s the key part of its defense: [I]t’s the string of Page 1 [...]
Bookworm on Jul 25 2008 | Filed under: Anti-war, Democrats, Iraq
Tweet In light of the Surge’s manifest success, John Hawkins, of Right Wing News, has written a column that assembles many of the Democratic gloom and doom predictions about the Surge when it was first proposed. Makes for interesting reading in that it exposes the profound ignorance and ideological blindness coming from the Left.
Bookworm on Jul 23 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama
Tweet It’s no longer a phrase heard much anymore, but the Progressives used to title themselves “the reality based community.” They understood the real world, unlike the cruel, self-centered, self-serving conservatives surrounding them. Of course, that being the case, Obama must be the reality based candidate. However, Cheat-Seeking Missiles, riffing off a Washington Post editorial, [...]
Bookworm on Jul 17 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama
Tweet Here’s a good video showing Obama’s constantly revolving position on Iraq (h/t Hot Air): And, given the way Obama’s head is flipping left and right as he keeps doing a 180 on his Iraq position, I couldn’t help thinking of poor little Linda Blair’s head:
Bookworm on Jun 24 2008 | Filed under: Iraq, Military
Tweet I’m sorry to say that, for me, “the troops” have always been somewhat abstract, not because I don’t respect and admire them, but because I really don’t know any troops. Living in my Marin bubble, where the military is anathema to the average person, you simply don’t have a large number of people entering [...]
Bookworm on Jun 09 2008 | Filed under: Anti-war, Barack Obama, Iraq, John McCain
Tweet Frederick Kagan has a fascinating comparison of the specific Iraq policy plans McCain and Obama advanced before the Surge. McCain actually envisioned a surge-like event, and described all the positive benefits that would flow from it — and his predictions proved to be completely accurate. Obama, of course, demanded retreat and defeat. Given the [...]
