“Nineteen months after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., declared the war in Iraq ‘lost’ and just nine months after Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., asserted the war has been a ‘failure’ because it had not brought political change leading to reconciliation, it can now be said conclusively that both were wrong,” wrote columnist Cal Thomas. “One of the great military reversals in history is close to achieving victory. That is contributing to stability in Iraq, along with reconciliation between warring factions.”
Still, as Thomas acknowledged, that stability and reconciliation is fragile, as evidenced by more bombings this week.
President-elect Barack Obama’s plan to keep Wichita native Robert Gates as defense secretary is wise, as Gates will provide valuable continuity during a time of two wars. Besides, Gates has earned bipartisan respect for his pragmatic, mature leadership during his two years as defense secretary. Rare for the Bush administration, Gates holds people accountable for failures, such as when he fired officials responsible for the conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He also has championed strengthening and better utilizing America’s “soft power,” such as by expanding the U.S. foreign service – which matches Obama’s foreign policy approach.
No foreign leader was more loyal to President George W. Bush than British Prime Minister Tony Blair when it came to fighting terrorism and supporting the Iraq war. So it’s awkward at best to learn that, according to former communications intercept operator David Murfee Faulk, U.S. intelligence had a database on Blair that extended to his private life, contrary to a long-standing U.S.-British agreement not to spy on each other. Faulk said he also heard “pillow talk” phone calls between Iraq’s first interim president, Ghazi al-Yawer, and his then-fiancee. A spokesman for the National Security Agency told ABC News that the agency follows all laws. The reader reaction in the British newspapers included this comment from Times Online: “Ah, so that’s why he went along with the Iraq invasion.”
In his first news conference since the campaign, on which he said he looks “back with pride and honor,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had admiring words Tuesday for President-elect Barack Obama’s Cabinet choices so far, especially Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano’s reported nod as secretary of homeland security. Then again, notes MSNBC’s First Read blog, that appointment would eliminate McCain’s top rival for a 2010 re-election bid to the Senate. Plus, Obama just engineered Senate Democrats’ forgiveness of McCain’s friend Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.
It’s great that the Wichita Police Department finally has video cameras in patrol cars. Unfortunately, the cameras are only in eight cars as part of a yearlong pilot project. Still, it’s an important start.
Though cameras can’t catch everything, the footage can be effective in helping resolve some “he said, she said” situations, including allegations of racial profiling. Civilians and officers also tend to behave better when they know they’re being filmed.
“Nineteen months after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., declared the war in Iraq ‘lost’ and just nine months after Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., asserted the war has been a ‘failure’ because it had not brought political change leading to reconciliation, it can now be said conclusively that both were wrong,” wrote columnist Cal Thomas. “One of the great military reversals in history is close to achieving victory. That is contributing to stability in Iraq, along with reconciliation between warring factions.”
