President Bush rejected a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq and called for resolve and patience in his speech this morning at the U.S. Naval Academy. It was a determined and hopeful message aimed at restoring public support for the war. And he outlined a few more specifics, though his definition of “complete success” is still unclear and seems to have been downgraded to a stable Iraq that isn’t a safe haven for terrorists. Many Americans likely will doubt Bush’s assessments of progress in training Iraqi troops, given that several Pentagon officials and independent analysts are much less optimistic. But it was good that Bush went beyond platitudes in making his case for what is at stake and why “staying the course” is important.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Here’s a smart Christmas gift idea that keeps on smarting: Zygote Games, a company based in Hadley, Mass., is offering Kansans a 20 percent discount on “Bone Wars: The Game of Ruthless Paleontology,” in which players compete in discovering and assembling dinosaur bone cards into completed skeletons.
Why a special deal for Kansans? According to the company’s Web site, “BONE WARS is all about how scientific theories get developed and tested. . . . Maybe our game can do what the schools in Kansas won’t.”
Thanks for thinking of us. Send a copy to the Kansas State Board of Education, please.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Polls show that most Americans think invading Iraq was a mistake. But was it the biggest war mistake in 2,014 years? That’s what military historian Martin van Creveld thinks, calling Iraq “the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., argued in a Wall Street Journal commentary that America can’t abandon Iraqis. Lieberman wrote: “It is a war between 27 million and 10,000; 27 million Iraqis who want to live lives of freedom, opportunity and prosperity and roughly 10,000 terrorists who are either Saddam revanchists, Iraqi Islamic extremists or al Qaeda foreign fighters who know their wretched causes will be set back if Iraq becomes free and modern. The terrorists are intent on stopping this by instigating a civil war to produce the chaos that will allow Iraq to replace Afghanistan as the base for their fanatical war-making. We are fighting on the side of the 27 million because the outcome of this war is critically important to the security and freedom of America. If the terrorists win, they will be emboldened to strike us directly again and to further undermine the growing stability and progress in the Middle East, which has long been a major American national and economic security priority.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Did you hear about the guy who hosts a public radio show in Seattle, John Moe, who spent a month listening to Rush Limbaugh, visiting the Reagan and Nixon libraries, not reading The New York Times and otherwise taking a walk on the right side? His book, “Conservatize Me,” will be out next year. U.S. News & World Report suggested Moe won’t miss the patriotic country and Western tunes (“Liberals have better music”) but enjoyed conservatives’ jokes. “To be funny you have to have confidence. And you develop confidence when you rule the world,” he said. If so, how come George W. Bush and Dick Cheney look so unamused these days?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Old Cowtown Museum has a brand new gateway to the past: The $1.9 million visitor’s center, a handsome Western lodge-styled building, opens today.
The center — the culmination of more than a decade of hard work by Cowtown supporters — is the first major addition to the museum since the DeVore Farm opened in 1998. This building provides a much more appealing entrance and good first impression than the old back parking lot. And with its new gift shop, restrooms, kitchen facilities and children’s amphitheater, the center also provides Wichita with a striking new meeting facility.
This is a welcome enhancement to Cowtown that, along with ongoing efforts to upgrade programming, should keep visitors coming back.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
