British defeat in Iraq

“I look at it and see it is actually an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well.” — Dick Cheney
Anthony Cordesman comes out and says what everyone, including the leaders of the British Army, already know: the British have been defeated in the south of Iraq, and their [...]

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Marine vs. Marine

Sorry, Col. Owens. First, you forgot Clayton Lonetree. Second, you don’t get to pick.

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Corruption, defined.

The dictator feasts while his country starves. There is no better argument for humanitarian invasion than this man. Zimbabwe now has the lowest life expectancy in the world, with a level of mortality normally only seen in civil wars. If you feel like shaking in righteous anger, read some of the vomitous propaganda that Mugabe’s [...]

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Letters from Iwo Jima

 In a word, underwhelming. The film seems to have no real structure and you do not get a feeling for the flow of the battle. Scenes and times jump around, and the film never really builds up to anything. Emotionally, I didn’t feel for the characters nor did I ever get an understanding for why [...]

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More Kirkuk

Kurdish Iraq Army units in Kirkuk are rebadged peshmerga, or Kurdish militia fighters, and they’re not afraid to say it.
Lt. Hiwa Raouf Abdul is not supposed to be in Kirkuk. The oil-rich city, which many fear is teetering on the brink of civil war, is off-limits to Kurdish Peshmerga militia members.
And yet, on Tuesday, the [...]

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Horrifying

I can’t even imagine what it must be like to be a mother in Baghdad. This is awful.

We were asked to send the next of kin to whom the remains of my nephew, killed on Monday in a horrific explosion downtown, can be handed over. The young men of the family, as was customary, rose [...]

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Lock up your white women … Obama’s coming to town!

According to Benjamin Wallace-Wells in Rolling Stone.
Then, running preliminary polls, his advisers noticed something remarkable: Women responded more intensely and warmly to Obama than did men. In a seven-candidate field, you don’t need to win every vote. His advisers, assuming they would pick up a healthy chunk of black votes, honed in on a different [...]

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The Shia of Lebanon

Very interesting, if lengthy, post on the Shia population of southern Lebanon. A bit short on present-day stuff, but informative social history. Via Global Voices.

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Kirkuk – because four civil wars just aren’t enough …

Phil Carter wrote an excellent article for Slate detailing the various conflicts that are tearing apart Iraq, and how success in one fight sometimes equals a setback in another.

But because this is Iraq, the situation’s about to get more complicated. The ticking time bomb of Kirkuk, set to blow for so long, is ready to [...]

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Vigor?

Read this odd tidbit in Politico:
Romney has chiseled-out-of-granite features, a full, dark head of hair going a distinguished gray at the temples, and a barrel chest. On the morning that he announced for president, I bumped into him in the lounge of the Marriott and up close he is almost overpowering. He radiates vigor.
 
I actually [...]

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