October 07, 2007
On the War
A few observations of the the good news, the bad new and the terrible costs of this long war.
This Prospect article has been sitting in my link list for about a week. It is quite boosterish in tone but they make as very good case that far beyond the limited potential of increasing troop numbers the change in emphasis and tactics of the surge is beginning to pay off. It defies excerpting I strongly urge you to read the whole long thing.
Related is this piece over at Captains Quarters which indicates that Al-Sadr may have capitulated, at least to an extent.
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This Prospect article has been sitting in my link list for about a week. It is quite boosterish in tone but they make as very good case that far beyond the limited potential of increasing troop numbers the change in emphasis and tactics of the surge is beginning to pay off. It defies excerpting I strongly urge you to read the whole long thing.
Related is this piece over at Captains Quarters which indicates that Al-Sadr may have capitulated, at least to an extent.
Sadr is a survivor, as we have learned over the last four years. He knows when to hold 'em, and he knows when to fold 'em. It looks like he's made another pragmatic calculation, but even Sadr can't hide the fact that he's taking his faction ever backwards. At one time, he played kingmaker to Maliki. Now he has to fight for scraps from Hakim's table and only has indirect influence over the government. Surviving may be a form of success, but Sadr could have played his hand so much more effectively -- and it won't be long before his underlings start to realize it, if they haven't already [quote/]
The mysterious Israeli raid some time ago does seem to be nuke related. The target was reportedly a Syrian nuke program that had received considerable North Korean assistance. The seeming impunity with which the IAF avoided the huge Syrian AA missile shield is heartening. Less so are the actions of the Bush administration which, gun shy after so many intelligence failures seems to have held the Israelis back for a time. Meryl has not entirely happy thoughts here.
I am not as angry as her about the administrations caution, though I'm disappointed. Given the intense pressure the administration is under over Iraq, they have lost both houses of congress, the US intelligence apparatus is apparently STILL broken if we are to believe that the Israelis revealed this to the USA. Excessive caution in this environment is understandable, but still worrisome. To wait too long is sometimes rather more dangerous.
Finally, one of the more moving articles I've seen in recent years is this Christopher Hitchens piece which I strongly urge you to read if you have somehow missed its travels around the net the last few days. It is a gut punch and a reminder that no matter how just our goals are, the price of this endeavor is still a terrible one that should not be taken lightly.
Update: Ewwww...its not like we didn't suspect this.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
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PIXY: Possible Bug
....an odd one
My "quote field is stuck"....it is supposed to end after the red highlighted text. All attemopts at fixing said post have failed.
....an odd one
My "quote field is stuck"....it is supposed to end after the red highlighted text. All attemopts at fixing said post have failed.
Posted by: Ken Talton at Sun Oct 7 16:57:37 2007 (V5zw/)
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Try {/quote} (braces subbed for brackets to get past parser).
Posted by: Old Grouch at Wed Oct 10 12:46:09 2007 (IcH0W)
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