Tag Archive 'Iraq'
Bookworm on Nov 16 2009 | Filed under: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Military
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 about the [...]
Bookworm on Jun 26 2009 | Filed under: Anti-war, Media matters
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 the psychological essence and [...]
Bookworm on Jun 03 2009 | Filed under: Iran, Israel
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 attack [...]
Bookworm on Mar 08 2009 | Filed under: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Iraq, Military
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 the manuverings [...]
Bookworm on Nov 25 2008 | Filed under: Arabs, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Israel, Saudi Arabia, United Nations
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 to be [...]
Bookworm on Oct 14 2008 | Filed under: Iraq, Military
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 and [...]
Bookworm on Sep 19 2008 | Filed under: Iraq, Military
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 been to Iraq [...]
Bookworm on Sep 17 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Iraq
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) a [...]
Bookworm on Sep 15 2008 | Filed under: Anti-war, Barack Obama, Iraq
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 crime that undermines the [...]
Bookworm on Jul 30 2008 | Filed under: Anti-war, Barack Obama, Iraq
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 impressed [...]
Bookworm on Jul 25 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, John McCain, Media matters
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 stories and [...]
Bookworm on Jul 25 2008 | Filed under: Anti-war, Democrats, Iraq
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.
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Bookworm on Jul 23 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama
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 [...]
Bookworm on Jul 17 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama
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:
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Bookworm on Jun 24 2008 | Filed under: Iraq, Military
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 the [...]
Bookworm on Jun 09 2008 | Filed under: Anti-war, Barack Obama, Iraq, John McCain
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 success [...]
Bookworm on May 31 2008 | Filed under: Iran, Iraq
I love Dean Barnett’s column explaining how much Bush and our military have achieved In Iraq and deservedly castigating the Democrats who would, first, deny that any victory is within our sights and, second, give the credit for American perseverance, strength and fortitude to the Iranians.
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Bookworm on May 31 2008 | Filed under: Iraq
I’m embarrassed to admit this, but Lynn Woolsey represents me in Congress. I didn’t vote for her — but this is what you get in a majority style democracy. Marin County has many virtues, which is why I like to live here, but wise political choices are not among those virtues.
Right now, as [...]
Bookworm on May 29 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Iran, Iraq, Jihad, John McCain, Judges, Judicial activism
I’ve been finding very disturbing the intense hostility that conservatives direct against John McCain. So much so that I wrote a very long rant on the subject, which American Thinker was kind enough to publish and which I reprint below:
Perhaps because I’m a neocon, and not a dyed-in-the-wool, native-born conservative, I look at John [...]
Bookworm on May 16 2008 | Filed under: Iran, Iraq
Have you heard the old expression “a fine Italian hand?” It’s an old saying that applied to a situation in which you believed, at first, that you were dealing with one rather inept adversary. However, as the matter progressed, you began to realize that there was a more skilled, subtle — and invisible [...]
Bookworm on May 14 2008 | Filed under: Iraq
There are no good people or bad people. There are only people who have different cultural values. My deep and abiding respect for the multicultural principles underlying moral relativism demand that I accept as culturally reasonable the fact that terrorists in Iraq strapped a remote-controlled bomb to an eight year old girl in [...]
Bookworm on May 11 2008 | Filed under: Arabs, Barack Obama, Feminism, Iraq, Islam, Muslim violence
The British press was rocked for a few minutes a couple of weeks ago by the story of an Iraqi girl whose father murdered her quite brutally because she’d fallen in love with a British soldier. (There was no hint, by the way, that she’d done anything about the love; it was an infatuation [...]
Bookworm on May 04 2008 | Filed under: Arabs, Barack Obama, Israel, Military, Palestinians
We received in yesterday’s mail a warning (a very nice warning) that my 5th grader is struggling with geometry. As a former geometry struggler myself, I’m all sympathy. We did not get mad at her. What is infuriating, though, is her absolutely unwillingness to learn geometry. After 1.5 years in public [...]
Bookworm on Apr 27 2008 | Filed under: Arabs, Islam, Muslim violence, Women
Honest to God, I really do wonder sometimes if the garden-variety fusion betwen Islamic and Arabic culture is salvageable:
A teenage Iraqi girl who fell in love with a British soldier when he was in Basra was murdered by her father in an “honour killing”, it was revealed today.
Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, was suffocated and then hacked [...]
Bookworm on Apr 21 2008 | Filed under: Hillary Clinton, Iraq, Military
Our local public radio station was replaying the most recent Hillbama debate, and so I listened to a piece of it that had slipped under my radar the first time. It’s actually quite funny, despite the scary implications of what Hillary is saying she’ll do regarding Iraq if she’s elected President. Here’s what [...]