Iraq: 60 Killed in Funeral Bombing

This is just terrible. The funeral was for two Sunnis part of a U.S. armed council that had been enlisted in the fight against the al Qaeda in Iraq organization.  This would appear to be a part of AQI’s attempt to increase the violence against the Sunni Awakening council which has sought to fight...

How Not To Wage The War On Terror

Despite whatever arguments that you provide to explain that Bush’s policies on terror have been little short than a disaster, you are almost invariably met with the king of post hoc ergo propter hoc arguments from some rightwing blowhard; “We haven’t been hit since 9/11!” Well,...

Joltin’ Joe Swings For The Fences

I’ve always been, how shall I put this, apprehensive regarding the AQI debate.  At best, the administration’s portrayal of al Qaeda in Iraq has been specious; riddled with misdirection from the beginning. There are two aspects regarding AQI that I feel are of prime importance.  The first is that...

There Never Was “Success”

Iraq.  It’s been a long stretch since I’ve written extensively on our occupation in that country, a combination of horse race (one of my primary fields of interest) becoming much more prominent in the public eye and the months-long lull in violence contributing to my dry spell. But it seems as...

Not Quite, Mr. Obey

Even though Rep. David Obey is currently one of my heroes for sticking to his guns on refusing to allow any funding of the Iraq War to continue without significant changes to the overall strategy, it’s still important to call the man out when he’s not exactly right. The error comes when he was...