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Will’s had his fill of Iraq, too

Rhonda Holman — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:59:09 +0000

Just three days after advocating that the United States get out of Afghanistan, Washington Post columnist George Will has turned to Iraq, declaring it an “illusion that Iraq is smoothly transitioning to a normality free of sectarian violence” and decrying the continued use of the U.S. military “to improve the instincts of corrupt elites” in Iraq. He concludes: “If, in spite of contrary evidence, the U.S. surge permanently dampened sectarian violence, all U.S. forces can come home sooner than the end of 2011. If, however, the surge did not so succeed, U.S. forces must come home sooner.”

Roberts never forgot

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:00:18 +0000

Many Americans had forgotten about Navy Capt. Michael “Scott” Speicher (in photo), the Gulf War pilot shot down and variously presumed missing or killed in action. But Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., never stopped seeking answers about Speicher, who grew up in Kansas City, Mo. The Pentagon announced Sunday that Speicher’s remains had been identified as those found buried in an Iraqi desert. “My thoughts and prayers are with the Speicher family,” Roberts said in a statement. “The perseverance of the Navy brings closure to Scott’s family and all of us who have worked on his case after a long ordeal. As a fellow Marine, I am proud these Marines followed every lead and fought all the way to the end. This proves a military member cannot be listed as killed in action without actual evidence. I call this the ‘Speicher Law’ for that reason. Thank you to the Department of Defense for not giving up on Scott, a true American hero.”

Is anybody sorry for Iraq war?

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:03:50 +0000

Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, who died July 6, expressed regrets late in life about the Vietnam War, observed Bradley Graham in a Washington Post commentary. “Will anyone apologize for Iraq?” he wondered. When Graham asked Donald Rumsfeld (in photo, with Condoleezza Rice) about Iraq-related regrets in an interview for a new biography of the former defense secretary, “he dismissed the question as a favorite press query unworthy of reply.”
Former Pentagon civilian policy chief Douglas Feith said: “It’s still highly political. And I just don’t think there’s any reason for the people who are on the receiving end of a political attack to play the game of the political attackers.”
Graham concluded: “Whether anyone ever apologizes, history at least is due an honest, detailed accounting of the actions and motivations of Rumsfeld and his colleagues.”

Unruh recounts shooting at Holocaust Museum

Phillip Brownlee — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:10:48 +0000

Sedgwick County Commissioner Dave Unruh was in line with his wife and two grandkids when the shooting occurred today at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Here is an interview with Unruh by a TV station.

Clinton needs to focus on Iraq

Phillip Brownlee — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:01:24 +0000

The follow-up to President Obama’s speech last week in Cairo needs to be led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wrote columnist and best-selling author Thomas Friedman. But rather than focusing on the Israeli and Palestinian issue, Friedman said, Clinton needs to “spearhead a sustained effort — along with the U.N., the European Union and Iraq’s neighbors — to resolve the lingering disputes between Iraqi factions before we complete our withdrawal. (We’ll be out of Iraq’s cities by June 30 and the whole country by the close of 2011.) Why? Because if Iraq unravels as we draw down, the Obama team will be blamed, and it will be a huge mess. By contrast, if a decent and stable political order can take hold in Iraq, it could have an extremely positive impact on the future of the Arab world and on America’s reputation.”

GOP lost edge on national security

Phillip Brownlee — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:38:48 +0000

The public historically has preferred Republicans on national security issues. No longer. Democrats and Republicans now rate the same, according to a new Democracy Corps poll. And Democrats have moved far ahead of the GOP on specific security issues such as Afghanistan and Iraq, the poll found. The Democratic Party probably is getting a boost from President Obama, who has a 64 percent approval rating on national security among likely voters.

Latest bombing shows how deadly Iraq remains

Phillip Brownlee — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:28:35 +0000

The suicide bombing today in Iraq that killed five U.S. soldiers is another example of how deadly and dangerous Iraq remains, despite the success of the surge. Meanwhile, author Thomas Ricks has argued that while the surge improved security, it didn’t achieve a primary goal — creating space for Iraqi political leaders to move forward. “The bottom line is that none of the basic problems facing Iraq have been addressed — the relationship between Shia, Sunni and Kurds, or who leads the Shias, or the status of the disputed city of Kirkuk, or the sharing of oil revenue,” Ricks has said.

Shoe thrower gets three years

Phillip Brownlee — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:18:50 +0000

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoe at President Bush was sentenced to three years in jail. Muntadhar al-Zeidi was found guilty of aggression against a visiting head of state, a crime that under Iraqi law carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. Asked if he had anything else to say in his defense, al-Zeidi responded: “I am innocent. It was a natural reaction to the crime of occupation.”

Americans can handle sight of flag-draped coffins

Rhonda Holman — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:04:59 +0000

It is welcome news that the Obama administration is lifting the 18-year ban on allowing news photographs of flag-draped coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Cameras reportedly will be OK in cases where the families of the returning war dead have given their approval. This seems a reasonable way to respect privacy concerns, while finally acknowledging that Americans need not be spared the sight of this fact of war and even arguably need to see it.

There are better ways to express feelings

Phillip Brownlee — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:05:17 +0000

“I did not mean to kill the leader of the occupation forces. I was expressing what’s inside of me and what’s inside the Iraqi people from north to south and from west to east.” — Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush last year

Reid’s revisionist history in Iraq surge

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:03:44 +0000

The remarks by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that have received the most attention from Sunday’s “Meet the Press” appearance concerned whether Roland Burris would be seated as a senator from Illinois (maybe) and whether Reid told Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich not to pick an African-American to replace Barack Obama (”He is making all this up,” Reid said). But Reid’s dancing was fanciest when asked about his April 2007 comment that the “war is lost and that the surge is not accomplishing anything” in Iraq. Reid tried to claim Sunday that what he really meant was what Gen. David Petraeus was saying at the time: that the war could not be won militarily. Reid added: “I said it differently than he did. But it needed a change in direction. Petraeus brought that about. He brought it about – the surge helped, of course it helped. But in addition to that, the urging of me and other people in Congress and the country dictated a change, and that took place.”

Pro-Con: Is the Iraq war over?

Rhonda Holman — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:02:38 +0000

The Iraq War is over. Flames still burst from various sources and wild cards remain, such as the potential that Muqtada al-Sadr might stomp his feet and encourage his diminished militias to attack us. Yet support for Sadr among Shia is hardly monolithic. In fact, many Shia view him as a simpleton whose influence derives strictly from respect for his father. Others cite the threat from Iran, but the Iranian participation in the fighting here remains overstated.
Nobody knows what the future will bring, but the civil war has completely ended.
The Iraqi army and police grow stronger by the month, and even the National Police are gaining a degree of respect and credibility.
Iraqis are tired of war and ready to get back to school, to business and to living life as it should be.
- Independent correspondent Michael Yon, in the New York Post

Michael Yon is braver than the rest of us for declaring the war over, but it’s important to understand that there are no final battles in counterinsurgencies and it’s impossible to pinpoint the exact dates when wars like this end.
The anti-Iraqi insurgency – a war within a war – really is effectively over.
As long as another such war within a war doesn’t break out, Yon will appear more perceptive than the rest of us in hindsight when the currently low levels of violence finally do taper off into relative insignificance.
None of this means terrorism and violence in Iraq are over. Violence is never over in the Middle East, and Islamist terrorism will be with us for years, if not decades.
There may yet be another war, a different war, in Iraq. It would be foolish to dismiss that possibility or assume there is no more work to be done.
- Michael Totten, commentarymagazine.com

The late-night take on ‘Shoegate’

Rhonda Holman — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:00:43 +0000

“President Bush took a surprise trip to Baghdad over the weekend and at a press conference with the Iraqi premier, a reporter threw his shoes at him. This guy was so angry and so anti-Bush, at first people just assumed he was an American journalist, but no.” – Jay Leno

“You see what he did to keep from being hit? Something he’s never done before. Lean to the left.” – Leno
“I don’t think Bush really has dodged anything like that since the Vietnam War.” – David Letterman
“The man who threw his shoes at President Bush is being hailed as a hero in Iraq. Yeah. In fact, when he dies, he’ll be greeted in heaven by 72 podiatrists.” – Conan O’Brien

Imagine if shoes had flown during Saddam’s day

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:04:41 +0000

The angry Iraqi TV journalist whose name-calling and shoe-hurling upstaged President George W. Bush’s surprise visit to Iraq illustrated Iraq’s progress toward democracy, at least for columnist Roger L. Simon. He wrote: Iraq is “turning into a (somewhat) decent place to live. That buffoon-like shoe chucker – his name is Muntadhar al-Zeidi from Al-Baghdadia channel which broadcasts from Cairo – proved it. No matter what happens to al-Zeidi now (and it won’t be much if anything), it will be nothing like what would have happened to him if he had hurled a shoe at the president during the previous Iraqi administration of Saddam Hussein.”

Hold more than Blackwater guards accountable

Phillip Brownlee — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:18:18 +0000

Columnist Eugene Robinson contends that the indictments of five private security guards for allegedly killing 17 unsuspecting Iraqi civilians in 2007 are “a whitewash that absolves the government and corporate officials who should bear ultimate responsibility.” Case documents released Monday claim that the Blackwater Worldwide employees used automatic rifles and grenade launchers to fire on cars, houses, a traffic officer and a girls’ school, the New York Times reported. Robinson wrote: “As with the torture and humiliation of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison, our government is deflecting all scrutiny from the corporate higher-ups who employed the guards – to say nothing of the policymakers whose decisions made the shootings possible, if not inevitable.”

November comparatively safe for U.S. troops

Rhonda Holman — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:44:11 +0000

Strange as it is to see a silver lining in war casualty totals, there it is: The U.S. military’s 11 combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan in November were the fewest in one month since the Iraq war began 5½ years ago. The most came in November 2004, when 129 died in combat in the two conflicts. Though the improving security in Iraq is key to the decline, the situation is less clear in Afghanistan, where the U.S. military saw one combat death last month but there were 11 other combat deaths among coalition forces.

Did intelligence on Iraq even matter?

Phillip Brownlee — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:03:23 +0000

“The biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq,” President Bush told Charles Gibson of ABC News. “A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein.” So if the intelligence had correctly concluded that Iraq didn’t have WMDs, Gibson asked, would there have been a war? “You know, that’s an interesting question,” Bush said. “That is a do-over that I can’t do. It’s hard for me to speculate.”

Nearing a victory in Iraq?

Phillip Brownlee — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:06:20 +0000

“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.

Iraqis may decide U.S. exit strategy

Rhonda Holman — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:41:37 +0000

“BAGHDAD – Iraq wants to eliminate any chance U.S. forces will stay here after 2011 under a proposed security pact, and to expand Iraqi legal jurisdiction over U.S. troops until then, a close ally of the prime minister said Thursday” to Associated Press. So after all the hours spent debating it on the campaign trail, how and when the U.S. military leaves Iraq may not be a matter for the next decider in chief but instead settled by Iraqis.

Dramatic turnaround for Iraq’s ‘Triangle of Death’

Rhonda Holman — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 11:00:33 +0000

Recent days have brought excellent news out of Iraq, which should be doing more to help surge-champion John McCain’s presidential campaign:
With the U.S. military’s handoff of the central province of Babil to Iraqi security forces on Thursday, two-thirds of Iraq is now being secured by the Iraqi army and local police, with backup from U.S. troops. That means Iraqis finally have stood up, allowing Americans to stand down, in 12 of 18 provinces. Babil is part of the area once known as the “Triangle of Death,” which averaged 20 sectarian attacks a week last year.
On a somewhat lighter note, less violence and more cell-tower construction has resulted in reliable cell phone coverage, meaning, as U.S. News & World Report put it, “BlackBerries are back in Baghdad.”

Thanks, Gen. Petraeus

Rhonda Holman — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:03:48 +0000

Americans and Iraqis owe a debt of gratitude to Gen. David Petraeus for the fact that Iraq has gone from bad to far better over the past year and a half. Petraeus, who is becoming commander of U.S. Central Command based in Florida, put the brilliant counterinsurgency strategy he’d helped author during his command of Fort Leavenworth into practice in Iraq. And with the key assistance of Iraqis, he oversaw a dramatic reduction in violence and tremendous weakening of terrorists and extremist militias. It was largely because of Petraeus’ own leadership that he was able to thank troops Tuesday for having “turned ‘hard but not hopeless’ into still hard but hopeful.” Now the task of further securing Iraq belongs to Gen. Ray Odierno.

How will Iraq deal affect race?

Randy Scholfield — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:22:24 +0000

Iraq and the United States reportedly have finalized an agreement that would withdraw most U.S. troops by the end of 2011. President Bush is expected to approve the agreement.
This is a very encouraging sign that the Iraq war debacle and its mounting costs might finally be coming to an end — at least there’s some light at the end of the tunnel.
“We have to let go, and we’re not reluctant to do that,” said Gen. David Petraeus. “And the Iraqis are not reluctant to take control.”
How will this development affect the presidential race? Both John McCain and Barack Obama are claiming vindication from the remarkable turn of events in Iraq, which seem to buttress both Obama’s call for a withdrawal timetable and McCain’s claims about the success of the surge.

Clinton correct about no-bid contracts

Phillip Brownlee — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:00:59 +0000

“If we’re going to get serious about putting our nation’s fiscal house in order, let’s talk about putting an end to billions in no-bid contract awards to unaccountable contractors,” Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., wrote in a Wall Street Journal commentary critical of the Bush administration. “Let’s talk about the number of lucrative contracts and bonuses being paid for duties never performed, promises never fulfilled, and contracts falsely described as complete. And let’s talk about reforming the federal contracting system so that we can take on the real waste, fraud and abuse in our federal government.”

Good, bad news in Iraq

Rhonda Holman — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:58:43 +0000

What great news that July’s 13 U.S. troop deaths in Iraq were the fewest in any month since the war began in March 2003, and that President Bush is talking about more troop withdrawals. But how disappointing that a political deadlock is preventing Iraqi leaders from settling a power-sharing dispute and proceeding with provincial elections. There is more disagreement between the Kurds and the central Iraqi government over a new oil law. The surge was meant to promote political progress as well as quell violence.

McCain now backs Obama’s timetable, too?

Phillip Brownlee — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:04:39 +0000

“I think it’s a pretty good timetable,” John McCain said Friday about the 16-month timeline for pulling out of Iraq. So is he now backing Barack Obama’s proposal, too? And isn’t this a policy change, given how McCain has said for months that he didn’t support a timetable for withdrawal? No, McCain said Sunday. He contends that the difference is that he would base his decisions on “the conditions on the ground.” But this looks like a shift based on the conditions of the election.