Obama And Petraeus

The Times tells us about the evolving and improving relationship between Gen. Petraeus and his Commander-in-Chief.

I like the reason the General is so well respected:

Like no other figure today, General Petraeus has stepped into Gen. Colin L. Powell’s shoes as the face of the military to ordinary Americans, particularly as the White House extols the end of the combat mission in Iraq, which was largely made possible by the troop surge that General Petraeus orchestrated.

General Petraeus orchestrated the surge, but who ordered it?  A mystery!  But Bush did get mentioned earlier, when we were told that Petraeus was one of his favorites.

The Times almost gets snide here:

General Petraeus has a history of early optimistic assessments that proved largely correct; one dates back to the Iraq surge, over which he and Mr. Obama first butted heads. Military officials say that during the early days of the surge, General Petraeus cited what his staff termed “leading indicators” of progress, even when much of the private and public discussion of the war effort was still negative. (During one Senate hearing with General Petraeus, then-Senator Obama accused the Bush administration of setting “the bar so low that modest improvement in what was a completely chaotic situation” was considered success.)

I stand by my earlier snarkery on the topic of Petraeus and Obama - one of these men has made history and changed a nation with his transformative leadership; the other got a lot of the asbestos out of Altgeld Gardens.

Comments

[Soylent Red]

JOMers:

Thanks for all the lovely packages. I gave most of the junk food in the last one to a route clearance unit that lives next door to me, and they we're glad to receive it. Kept a little for myself, and all the other stuff I kept too.

Just to let you know, please STOP all packages until further notice. I'm doing a 60-day rotation a little closer to the elephant and I don't know how mail will forward from here to there.

My BFF Dave was down here about a week ago, and I got to watch him on the video monitor. He's every bit as sharp as he appears to be, and has a strangely ribald sense of humor as well.

Thanks again for all the goodies. I'll let you know when to resume the ratline and where.

[Janet]

Okay Soylent...last one was sent Monday 9-13-10. It had your "really loud" alarm clock in it. We'll hold off until further notice. Take care...

[Joan of Argghh!]

"Old Gold" Gardens! *snort!* Did Valerie come up with that name herself?

Meanwhile, I imagine Petraeus has years of experience in kid-glove relations and political strategy that Obama has never encountered in all his life. If the relationship is improving, all the credit goes to the General. I'd not hesitate to think Petraeus' skills so adept as to make Obama think it's all his own doing. Which of course, he would anyway.

[NK]

Excellent snark TM-- you clobbered the NYT and BHO in one pass. Course that is like shooting fish in a barrell, nonetheless, very nice job.

[bunkerbuster]

The surge amounted to appeasing insurgents in the most concrete sense possible: putting them on the payroll. Bush defined his Iraq war strategy as one that brooked no compromise and certainly no negotiations with the insurgents. So the sudden shift to cash payments to militia with American blood on their hands is hardly an example of Bush's wisdom.
Rather, it is a very compelling example of why getting involved in civil wars is so thankless and without merit. The fact that in order to end the chaos, we had to pay off people who, weeks earlier, were shooting at our own troops, is the case closer on how and why the war was unwinnable.
So the president who invested all his political capital on "staying the course" now wants credit for changing that course?
Most important, why wasn't there a "surge" in the first place? If you want to give Bush credit for the surge's success, you have to also give him blame for taking the "no negotiations with insurgents" position in the first place, which proved so disastrous it had to be shamelessly reversed via the surge.
We are at a similar impasse in Afghanistan, wherein the folly of taking sides in a multi-front tribal civil war has become undeniable. It seems the recent drift is toward ``integrating'' the Taliban with government forces is indeed a nod to Patreaus and his success in Iraq. But the circumstances are far different.
Iraq, at the time of the surge, was in near total chaos, on the brink of disintegration with a quickly rising casualty count and U.S.-led forces broadly exposed.
In Afghanistan, the mayhem is far more sporadic and the coalition troops far more hunkered down and distributed away from flash points.
Attempts to buy off the Taliban in the way the Sunni militia in Iraq were bought off are unlikely to have much effect at all, other than to waste still more U.S. taxpayer dough.

[iqvoice]

The Marshall Plan amounted to appeasing the Germans and the Japs in the most concrete sense possible: putting them on the payroll! Eisenhower defined his European war strategy as one that brooked no compromise and certainly no negotiations with the Germans. So the sudden shift to cash payments to the Germans with American blood on their hands is hardly an example of wisdom. Rather, it is a very compelling example of getting involved in European wars that are thankless and without merit. The fact that in order to end the chaos, we had to pay off people who, weeks earlier, were shooting at our own troops, is the case closer on how and why the war was unwinnable. Blah blah blah blah blah I'm a giant wanker blah blah blah.

[Captain Hate]

Most important, why wasn't there a "surge" in the first place?

The dumbfuckery never ends.

[anduril]

Changed history? Changed a nation? Please TM--whatever it is you're smoking, stop now, for your own good!

1. Which of the three (or more) nations that inhabit Iraq did Petraeus transform? We know for sure he transformed the Sunnis who inhabited Baghdad--the US stood by while the Shia cleansed most of Baghdad.

2. Wouldn't it be more seemly to wait before shouting "transformation!" until Iraq actually forms its own government?

3. We've gone through what The Surge really was at length, and transformative it wasn't. It was a variation on British colonial strategy. That worked and transformed, too...for a while. Just check out the list of transformed nations around the world that owe their transformation to the British. Experience suggests that transformation isn't easy and certainly doesn't come fast.

[Rob Crawford]

The dumbfuckery never ends.

It could.

[anduril]

Hey, remember when I said that Rick Moran had written a "remarkably stupid" article? Oh.My.God! JOMers had a collective cow! I was Satan incarnate. Later, however, JOMers became rather subdued about the sainted Rick, who today is writing that the Tea Party Defines Losing as Winning:

The tea party folk are on cloud nine this week following several victories on Tuesday night. And why not? They took a fatally flawed candidate in Delaware — a deadbeat who stopped paying her mortgage, a tax dodge, a radical, out-of-the-mainstream social conservative — and elevated her to the status of fiscal warrior and Constitutional saint, defeating a flawed (but not half as blemished) moderately liberal Republican who almost certainly would have waltzed to victory in November.

Jeri Thompson is telling us that Christine O’Donnell is like Sarah Palin and just needs GOP “establishment” support to win in November. She will need considerably more than that, including one of those neuralizers from Men in Black to flash the entire population of Delaware and make them forget some of the loonier things O’Donnell has said about sex, about Vince Foster, and about her own financial history about which she has lied and lied again.

O’Donnell may in fact win. By November, the Democrats might be in such bad odor with the public that a pie-eyed prostitute, much less a prevaricating lightweight, could get elected in opposition to a Democrat. But chances are O’Donnell will be slaughtered and the likelihood of a GOP takeover of the Senate — already a long shot — will go down the tubes.

Who was right-er?

And when do we have that discussion about Israel selling drones and technology to Putin's Russia to help the Russkis keep tabs on plucky little Georgia?

[Danube of Thought]

Minus 18 at Raz today.

[anduril]

TM, are you even now working on your new David Brooks thread?

[anduril]

OK, editors, which is preferable (one actually appeared in print):

There's always going to be bigoted idiots, so let's stop with the senseless comparisons.

There're always going to be bigoted idiots, so let's stop with the senseless comparisons.

There will always be bigoted idiots, so let's stop with the senseless comparisons.

[Captain Hate]

Hey, remember when I said that Rick Moran had written a "remarkably stupid" article? Oh.My.God! JOMers had a collective cow! I was Satan incarnate. Later, however, JOMers became rather subdued about the sainted Rick

Rick Moran's an idiot; I've been saying that for at least 2 years.

[Danube of Thought]

much of the private and public discussion of the war effort was still negative

As in, say, "this war is lost." (Cf. Nancy Pelosi: "The war in Afghanistan is over.")

[anduril]

Rick Moran's an idiot; I've been saying that for at least 2 years.

Time to move on--don't bother telling me I was right. How about the new warmth between Putin and Israel and the high tech Israeli aid to Russia's monitoring of Georgia? I remember taking a considerable amount of abuse over Georgia from the usual suspects. Anyone want to revisit that Bushie/Cheney fiasco?

[Neo]

D for Down the Drain. LOL

[narciso]

In the Early years after the War, the French political system was about purging the old Vichy class, it was called epuration, that was why Renault and L'Oreal were nationalized in part some years in, around '47, we realized that this would leave only the Communist in charge, hence there was a push back, the Communists were purged by the Government under Ramadier, and eventually even the likes of Bousquet, one of the head Vichy were rehabilitated. The latter went on to the Banque de Indochine, which supported the expedition
to reclaim Indochina from the likes of Ho Chi Minh, One of those involved in the early stages waS Oliver's Stone's father,
as a disbursement officer for the Occupation authority.

Similar patterns, recur with Japan, and SCAP, where members of the Royal family, and
other Grade A war criminals like Kodama, the father of the LDP, were restored to power. The same for Italy, around '48, 'walking around money for De Gasperi,

[anduril]

Michael Hirsh at Newsweek complains: Our Best Minds Are Failing Us. With America in deep trouble, our economists are AWOL, and our scientists are still off ‘financial engineering.’

But one problem is that the economics profession “has gotten much more intolerant of divergence from orthodoxy,” says Philip Mirowski, an economic historian at Notre Dame. “The range in which dissent happens is so narrow. In a sense they still cannot imagine the system can operate to undermine itself. That is not a position that is allowed anywhere in the economics profession. The field got rid of methodological self-criticism. This Great Moderation stuff was just arrogance, hubris.” Indeed, the joke on economists, says one of them, Rob Johnson, is that they create simplistic models that depend on people behaving as rational actors motivated by self-interest, yet “they have a blind spot regarding themselves.” The way they squabble mulishly to defend now-indefensible positions is itself evidence of how flawed those rational-actor models are.

[Captain Hate]

plucky little Georgia

Who you were opposed to at the time, if my memory serves me well; which is why I thought you were one of the crazy Ivans that Putin's ilk unleashed on the internet to sew disinformation.

[anduril]

unleashed on the internet to sew disinformation.

I think there are some JOMers who have disinformation all "sewed" up. I sow information in pursuit of inquiry. I wasn't opposed to "Georgia," I was opposed to the US policies that led to that fiasco. What's wrong with people here--why are simple distinctions like that utterly beyond them?

[Rob Crawford]

Yeah, what I wanted on a Friday morning -- another thread all about anusil.

[anduril]

Big news out there today is that VMware will be buying up SUSE Linux in the Novell split/sale.

http://www.serverwatch.com/virtualization/article.php/3903931/VMware-Novell-to-Dance--Server-Virtualization-Tango.htm

[Captain Hate]

Yeah, what I wanted on a Friday morning -- another thread all about anusil.

Sorry, I thought I'd address some disinformation, which did no good.

[Rob Crawford]

Sorry, I thought I'd address some disinformation, which did no good.

It never does.

The purpose of trolls is not to debate, or inform, or anything else. Their purpose is to smear crap on the walls and piss everyone off.

[anduril]

Who really believes that chatter by financial analysts can affect consumer confidence? Apparently Joe Weisenthal:

Consumer Sentiment Of 66.6 Comes In Way Worse Than Expected

The number: September University of Michigan sentiment of 66.6 is definitely lighter than expected. Analysts were looking for 70.0

Stocks are turning south.

All that double dip talk may be having an effect.

Maybe add this to David Rosenberg's 13 signs that we're in a depression >

Background: Analysts are looking for a reading of 70.0. Last month it was at 68.9. We'll see if the constant drumbeat of double dip talk will have an effect.

[narciso]

What is kind of striking for a historian, that
he somehow fancies himself, is that his time window is so narrow, Czarist Russia, from the
time of Catherine the Great had their designs
on Georgia, Paul ultimately acquired out in 1799, and so did any previous concerns for South Ossetians, same in 1921.

[anduril]

The Neocons have been using lefty David Rieff to criticize Peter Beinart. Now Powerline takes a new, improved approach:

From the right, Steve Hayward takes a critical look at Beinart's two books in "Flights of fancy." Hayward does not find the thesis of Beinart's current book to be worthless. Rather, he thinks it can be applied to the Progressive/liberal project as a whole:

Beinart's narrative provides the perfect set-up for serious reflection on the difficulty of matching up a hierarchy of ends to a hierarchy of means.

[Beinart's] criticisms of pure reason and of naïve faith in human nature's goodness and plasticity questions, implicitly, modern liberalism's central pillar. The eclipse of prudence by scientific, idealistic politics was a defining feature of Progressive statecraft, and it remains so for modern liberalism today--at least on the domestic scene. In making an elegant call for greater circumspection about government's mastery over all things, Beinart's skepticism stops at the water's edge. Why not apply the lessons of hubris--of overreaching and presuming a greater command of flawed human nature than is realistically possible--to, say, health care reform, or social policy generally?

"The hubris of dominance," Beinart writes, "like the hubris of reason and the hubris of toughness before it, had relied on faith in political authority." But isn't faith in political authority the central premise of domestic liberalism? Beinart doesn't contemplate that the same conceit that leads to foreign debacles is at work in domestic affairs, with similar results. At one point late in the book he offers up the throwaway line, "As our welfare state has withered...." This is a worthy nominee for one of those "sentences-we-didn't-finish" contests, because there is no way the conclusion to this sentence can be sensible. What can Beinart be thinking, even if this was written before Congress passed Obamacare? The U.S. spends more per capita on social programs than honest-to-God Scandinavian welfare states.

Hayward concludes that Beinart's book does not go deep enough into the modern liberal soul. Rieff's review raises a serious question about Beinart's intellectual integrity. By contrast, Hayward takes Beinart at face value. He credits his thesis while questioning the limits of his analysis.

[anduril]

More crap for the walls.

[Thomas Collins]

See LUN for Dem women engaging in some BlueBabe on BlueBabe action. Definitely not safe for work!

[anduril]

Hey, turns out turmeric cures Alzheimer's.

[anduril]

Amusing post from Steve Sailer:

DC voters: Adrian Fenty: Not black enough; Michelle Rhee: Extremely not black enough

From the Washington Examiner, on the Democratic mayoral primary in D.C. between the two cafe-au-lait candidates, young Obama-like incumbent Adrian Fenty and aging hack challenger Vince Gray, which turned out much like Obama's loss to Bobby Rush in the 2000 Democratic House of Representative primary.

The Democratic primary results were clear: Mayor Adrian Fenty lost because black voters didn't like him.

Granted, Fenty's campaign was troubled from start to finish. His closest advisers say he didn't listen to their calls to apologize to the public for running a brash, and closed administration months before he dropped his first apology in early August. The apology tour that ensued was far too late.

But at the end of the day, with campaign failings aside, Fenty won't have a second term because he lost a big part of his base by running a four-year race for results with blinders on that left black voters feeling as though they were being left behind. The sagging economy only served to worsen the effect.

Fenty's "lack of communication exacerbated fears of gentrification in the black community," the mayor's campaign Chairman Bill Lightfoot told The Washington Examiner.

The city's black majority wards on the east side of the Anacostia Rive helped push Fenty into office in 2006, but in 2010 they combined to give 82 percent of their vote to challenger D.C. Council Chairman Vince Gray. Fenty picked up just 16 percent of the vote in Wards 7 and 8.

In the city's two whitest wards in Northwest, Fenty took in 76 percent of the vote to Gray's 23 percent.

Gray also dominated in predominantly black, yet rapidly gentrifying Ward 5, picking up nearly 76 percent of the vote. The race was closer in more racially and economically mixed Wards 4, 6 and 1.

The 2010 Democratic primary could go down as the last in which the city has a black majority. By 2014, population trends show, the District will likely have a white majority for the first time since the 1950s. In Tuesday's vote, the rapid demographic change pitted old residents, who are mostly black, against new residents, who are mostly white.

Also, Fenty's decision to make Korean-American Dragon Princess Michelle Rhee boss of the schools and the face of his administration struck the white guy national reporters as smart and sexy. But Korean-black relations aren't always so hot, as this video from LA's Koreatown in April 1992 recalls.

[anduril]

Another article by "idiot" Rick Moran (AT) that "we" will steadfastly avert our eyes from--as from crap on the walls:

Who holds the title of 'Greatest Mass Murderer in History?'

Note that I wasn't stupid enough to call Moran an "idiot," but instead simply wrote that he had written an article that was "remarkably stupid."

[boris]

"turmeric cures Alzheimer's"

What's the cure for anduroids and wizenheimers?

[Danube of Thought]

Raz: Johnson 51, Feingold 44.

[JM Hanes]

It must be Revisionist History Day in the threads, although Counting Imaginary Coup Day is running a close second.

[Ignatz]

Interesting article by George Neumayr at AmSpec about D'Souza's recent Forbes anti- colonialist take on Barry.
His conclusion is Barry is an unhappy amalgam of his father's left wing anti-colonialism and his mother's left wing neo-colonialism.

[Extraneus]

Nothing about his wife's left wing hate-whitey anti-Americanism?

[Janet]

Really interesting article Ignatz.
I never thought about left wing neo-colonialism. The charm of poverty mixed with social experiments. really interesting..

[Danube of Thought]

Angry Mohammedan scores own goal in Copenhagen.

[Neo]

Novell seems to have this amazing ability to "buy high" and "sell low" .. think "WordPerfect"

[Janet]

Because of political correctness & white guilt, the left can't even discuss certain ideas. They are just bossy & boring.

[Rick Ballard]

Ex,

There's no reason not to add another layer to the souffle. After all, he's already a floor topping and a dessert wax. The Mirror of Erised is truly miraculous.

Wrt the topic at hand - President BOwser will clarify his intent to run in '12 with his decision regarding bugging out next summer. If his 'strange new respect' for Petraeus is marked by removing the specious deadline then I would say that he has decided against. If he holds the deadline in an attempt to regain credit among the Copperhead wing then it will indicate that he intends to run.

[Neo]

This "Kenyan, anticolonial behavior" idea is one of many explanations for the mythic mind of Obama. Frankly, most Marxists think the same way, so why be so obtuse ?

[Rob Crawford]

Angry Mohammedan scores own goal in Copenhagen.

Wanna bet his missing leg was from an earlier work accident?

[Rob Crawford]

If he holds the deadline in an attempt to regain credit among the Copperhead wing then it will indicate that he intends to run.

Not necessarily. He could simply be intent on handing the US a defeat.

[matt]

my last one was just sent on Monday, Soylent. The ones marker Christopher.

[DebinNC]

This March 08 American Thinker piece attempted to explain why Obama won Wisconsin but lost OH to Hillary. Watching in astonishment Obama, Michelle, Eric Holder, Van Jones, Shirley Sherrod, Charlie and Maxine, Monica "Shrek" Conyers, John "Imaginary people called me the n-word" Lewis, James "Alvin Greene is a Republican plant" Clyburn, etc. etc. may be affecting the polls in WI.

[matt]

bunker;

having a lot of friends who planned and were the surge, it was much more than that. If you remember Anbar, there were major pitched battles as we closed the ring on the insurgents. Same in Baghdad and the townships around it.

We then offered them a nicer version of plomo o plata, which is where the Sons of Iraq came in. All the while, the Shia were doing their best to murder as many Sunni as possible.

The reputation of the Shia among our military is very low. The political situation in Iraq today is primarily related to the incompetence, knavery, and sectarianism of the Shia majority.

Afghanistan is very different, and one doesn't really know where to start. The sheer stupidity/lack of education of the vast majority is truly difficult to underestimate, as is the sheer cussedness.

Friend of mine (Squad Sgt) just got back from the Korengal Valley where he was on a tiny COP with @ 26 other Americans and 2-3 ANA/ANP. They had not seen anyone from the government in 9 months.Their CA projects were pretty limited to water and some rudimentary schooling. There's no dope grown in the Korengal but it is a transition point. Dope is the real business running much of the country.

Our guys were shot at every day. The people hated them and did not cooperate in any way. The bad guys ran the valley. Note, these were not Taliban but a mix of thugs, people who called themselves Tollybans, some Haqqanis, and the occasional Chechens/Uzbeks associated with AQ.

The feeling of the troops was WTF are we doing here? This is a general feeling in the country.

The real key will be what non-biased sources are saying and not what the ISAF machine and lazy MSM tell us. Right now it is in transition and we're getting "happy news". They are dropping missiles on the Pakistani side daily, but this may be like swatting gnats with a howitzer. I don't think anyone really knows yet.

It will play out over the next 9 months, but we may be too broke to continue a large scale effort.

[Extraneus]

That they're pushing back so hard on Forbes is enough for me to congratulate D'Souza. Lots of people, who may not be deep into politics but sense that he's not one of us, will be able to grab onto one or another of these anti-American psychological theories. (One of my aunts was on the Muslim thing early on, and what's wrong with that explanation if it keeps her motivated?) So yeah, let's make a nice big layer cake if that's what it takes to get the Raz red line past 70% or so.

[MarkO]

"A one-legged Chechen boxer." His story's seldom told. He has wandered his existence.

I read something along the lines that if the mosque did not arise there would be, well, trouble. "That's a nice little twin towers you have there. Be a shame if anything happened to it."

It's extortion. Nothing more sophisticated or difficult to understand. The unidexter is a member of the Gambino family enforcing the threats. Why do we pretend otherwise. What is the benefit? Is it a vital lie?

[Rob Crawford]

matt - why are you bothering?

[NK]

Matt--

do not feed facts and reason to the BuBu, it gives him a tummy ache and makes him unhappy.

[BB Key]

On Diane Rehm show this morning they were trashing the Forbes piece and to counter Haley Barbour's statement from last week that we know less about Obama than any President in history, Ruth Marcus of the WaPo aserted that she knew plenty about the O, she had read both books!

[narciso]

Well ignoring Spunkmeyer, that's a good account of things,Matt, to the left it's always"Ho Chi Minh is going to win 24/7' when it's more like Tamerlaines's hordes, around the mountain. I alway figured the reason why
Korengal was important, was look at the map
the proximity to the heart of Pashtunland. That is near where Luttrell's team was captured, if I read Junger right

[Janet]

she had read both books!

even Gwen Ifill the PBS Obama cheerleader acknowledged Obama's books were sketchy.

[BB Key]

Janet,
I sent her an email and asked her to expand on the comment........I closed by saying that I knew more about Tom Eagleton than I did Barack Obama.

[JM Hanes]

O/T apologies in advance -- narcisolator-free commenters might want to scroll on by -- but when duty calls, Nemesis answers:

"Hey, remember when I said that Rick Moran had written a "remarkably stupid" article?"

Nope. There's a 99% chance, however, that I'd think anything penned by Rick Moran was remarkably arrogant and/or obtuse, unless the subject was pigs and acorns.

"Anyone want to revisit that Bushie/Cheney fiasco?"

I'd consider it, but as I recall, it was the Georgia scuffle which so wounded your vanity that you vowed never to risk speaking to me again. I'll give you a pass on the forehead slapping lapse when you thought you were responding to Cecil, and just congratulate you on managing to avoid a repeat of that humiliating engagement. You needn't bother telling me I'm right, silence being what it is. LOL!

"And when do we have that discussion about Israel selling drones and technology to Putin's Russia to help the Russkis keep tabs on plucky little Georgia?"

Perhaps when it occurs to you to factor Obama's tenure at the helm into the fiasco equation. Interesting use of "we" though.

[DebinNC]

The good news runneth over...FL audit that was supposed to ruin Rubio snagged Crist and Greer instead.

[Janet]

Here is Ifill's review of David Remnick's biography of Obama.

Ifill says, "I totally bought all of this the first time I read "Dreams." I don't know that I would today..."

[Tom Maguire]

The Marshall Plan amounted to appeasing the Germans and the Japs in the most concrete sense possible...

OK, I needed a new keyboard anyway, and the coffee was getting cold.

[Captain Hate]

Deb you're just a fountain of good news today; I guess we should start calling him "Cheat-o Crist". Put a fork in that orange critter.

So Glen Awful is admitting second thoughts on Bammy? Too bad the former linebacker didn't register any surprise when Plugs was fracturing history with delusional tales of the US and France kicking Hezzzzzzzzzzzzzzbollah out of Lebanon in the VP debates. Smart guy that Glen.

[Cecil Turner]

Yet another thread where andy's brand of "conservatism" is indistinguishable from that of the other DKos trolls. Just sayin'.

[JM Hanes]

Up until Obama's Afghanistan seminars I had often wondered why Petraeus never seemed to surface anywhere. It's pretty clear that, once again, the General's political instincts have served us well. I think he had Obama's father/mentor inclinations scoped out from the start. Interestingly enough, he kept a similarly low public profile, after the remarkable strides he made early on in Iraq. I wondered why he seemed to have disappeared off the stage then too. Looking back, we now know that he had the former President's ear too -- even before he was awarded a seat at the high table -- and was key to GWB's ultimate commitment to the surge.

If there's anyone who could turn Afghanistan around, it would be Petraeus. Alas, he is burdened with a trifecta of incompetence this time out: a President whose obsessions are domestic, an untrusted Ambassador who is as injudicious as McChrystal proved to be, and a regional czar whose specialty is covering ass.

[narciso]

Lawyers are told you don't ask a question if you don't already know the answer, the same goes for open ended audits, when you put the
chiselers in the counting house

[lyle]

So you do read anduril's crap, TM!

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

This is way off topic but I opened my health insurance bill this morning and the premium (for which I get one office visit a year and no prescriptions) has gone up 21% at the 6 month mark. I've never had a premium go up mid year before - I didn't know that was allowed. It must have been announced in the one of the thousands of letters they send me with print so small I couldn't see it through my 2+ glasses.

[BobDenver]

Christine O'Donnell's fundraising is over $1,500,000. I wonder when Krauthammer will give in and send a donation.

[Cecil Turner]

I think it's worth remembering this Profile[] in Courage moment on the "General Betrayus" ad:

But curiously absent from the vote was Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, also a Democratic candidate for president, who had canceled a campaign appearance in South Carolina so he could be in Washington for votes.

Mr. Obama issued a statement calling the resolution, put forward by Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, “a stunt.” Mr. Obama said, “By not casting a vote, I registered my protest against these empty politics.”

Mr. Obama had voted minutes earlier in favor of an extremely similar resolution proposed by Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California.

I wonder if it makes him in the least uncomfortable to be so dependent on Petraeus's good will (at least according to the latest from the Times).

[MayBee]

Jane- perhaps Sylvia will come along shortly to tell you how she can find you an insurance policy that is cheaper for you (although not possible to actually buy in MA)

[lyle]

Petraeus and The Poseur

Alternatively, Leader v. Lacuna

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

LOL Maybee. I forgot about that.

[Danube of Thought]

Unexpected:

Washington - Confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly dropped to a one-year low in September, indicating the biggest part of the economy is being handcuffed by a struggling labor market.

[Jack is Back!]

Is it possible to have a virtual cage match to the death pitting Andruril against Bubu with Sylvia as referee? I would like to see whether suffocation (Anduril) can be more deadly than a wrist slap (Bubu).

[Stephanie]

Maybee yikes! Keep those Summoner skills on D&D lest Sylvia shows up for real.

[Appalled]

At least bunkerbuster writes his own material.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

At least bunkerbuster writes his own material.

Are you sure? I think he copies it all over at Daily Kos.

[Jorge Gomez]

"At five today Sen. Lisa Murkowski will announce live that she is running as a write-in candidate after losing her Republican Primary bid for senate."

LUN

[Jorge Gomez]

Oops, LUN

[Jorge Gomez]

OK, now I heard a Murkowski staffer said she will NOT be running a write in campaign. I guess we will have to wait until the end of the day to find out.

Please stand by to stand by.

[anduril]

Novell seems to have this amazing ability to "buy high" and "sell low" .. think "WordPerfect"

Well, it's Novell itself basically on the block this time. BTW, I always thought WP 5.1 was a great word processor.

[DebinNC]

No More "Lesser of Two Evils"

I love the "compared to whom?" response.

[sbw]

the case closer on how and why the war was unwinnable

I am grateful to be old enough to have heard the recollections of my parents who were stationed in Austria after the war.

You are obviously to young to know or care what life was like then, on both sides. Otherwise you would not spout such unfounded speculation.

[anduril]

Just sayin'.

Totally.

[Irene Wright]

"So you do read anduril's crap, TM!"

I think TM is anduril. TM is tired of this blogger crap, he thinks it's as bad of a job as being first lady. He is trying to drive you all away so he can hang up his Commodore 64 and retire.

[Clarice]

JIB--I answered you on the other thread. I do own that property but it's just a lot so I didn't even remember the address. I'd like your son'e contact info and left my addy on that thread.

[narciso]

No, Mark is real, his byzantine stand alone blog, is testament to that. Maguire is socratic, whereas the other is not

[Clarice]

I never thought Lisa would run a write in campaign. Someone in D.C. will find something for her to do.

[Sandy Daze]

17 September 2010
BAGHDAD

In Iraq, we won.

Am sitting and thinking that any JOMers coming this way are more than welcomed to join me for a frostola (err, '[i]cool daddy[/i]'). We can discuss at length the various tactical gambits of the campaign, that a strategy or plan (or that [i]NO strategy or plan[/i] survives initial contact with the enemy), or that General Casey almost lost the war (in Jan 07 we thought we might be on the roof-tops by June, waiting for the helos), or that the surge was more then just troopers and material, it was also a change in strategy. . .

Or, we can just discuss the beautiful pre-autumn weather; tonight a waxing gibbous moon and cooler temps (@ 2100, 90F and 21% humidity, CAVU under a waxing gibbous moon).

Bottom line, we won, & we killed lots of the enemy.

God Bless the 4421 US G.I.s, the 318 coalitions troopers and the several thousand civilians who paid the ultimate price for this success.

GNGBU.

Take good care,
Sandy

nb: special image at LUN for you know who.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Bunkerbuster, you idiot, in every counter-insurgency, there are two basic strategies:

(1) Get them to change sides to your side, or
(2) kill them all.

Yes, that means you eventually have to make a relationship with the people who were shooting at you. That, however, refers us to a strategic point that goes back at least to Scipio the Elder and Cicero. They observed that in warfare, there are two ways to win a war:

(1) get the enemy to come over to your side, or
(2) kill them all.

The Romans did quite well with option (1) in a number of cases, but ended up resorting to option (2) with Carthage.

Worked real good -- as long as you weren't Carthaginian.

Now, for extra credit, you might consider which option was taken in WWII with the Germans and Japanese, and consider whether WWI actually came to a successful conclusion.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Anduril, you're first choice is grammatically incorrect, as it has a singular verb "is" in the contraction with plural subject "idiots".

Second choice is correct as a statement about the present.

Third choice is more correct, because it's in the future perfect, which is to say it states something true now and true into the future.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

And as in all comments considering grammatical points, my "you're" should be "your". Argh.

[Rob Crawford]

All grammer flames contain errirs, Charlie.

[Jorge Gomez]

OK, now it appears Murkowski will be running a write in campaign. LUN.

(Disclaimer: This story may or may not be correct)

[BobDenver]

Christine O'Donnell's fundraising has surpassed $1,600,000.

As Eugene Robinson says in the WaPo, "If the Democrats can't generate some real enthusiasm among the base, and fast, the word "unelectable" may cease to have meaning."

[DebinNC]

ADN reporting Murkowski supporters sending out invites to "campaign kickoff" tonight. .... daaaaaaaaa deeeeeeeeee

[Barbara]

Matt,

I appreciate all of the insight and information you provide on Afghanistan. There is so little reliable information available on what is actually happening there. Your insight is especially valued by those of us who have loved ones deployed or about to be deployed in that area.

[Cecil Turner]

Otherwise you would not spout such unfounded speculation.

Might want to dial up the sensitivity on the ol' irony detector. (I'm pretty sure the closing wasn't meant to be taken seriously.)

[bgates]

the word "unelectable" may cease to have meaning.

Oh, it'll still have meaning.

[anduril]

Agreed, Charlie. But the first is the one that appeared on the internet ("in print"), which led to my post. Second was my basic fix, but third is definitely best.