Some time ago—well, thirty years ago, more or less—I read a reminiscence on the journalism biz by Michael Kinsley, recalling the words of journalistic wisdom he received as a tyro from a legendary pundit whose name I have forgotten: “Always sell the same piece at least three times.” By that standard, I’m a motherfucking journalistic…
Search Results for: WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
“Democrats need to beware their looney left,” says confirmed looney Max Boot
“As I’ve traveled around, speaking about my book on how extremists hijacked the Republican Party,” says WashPost pundit Max Boot. “I have been hearing from Democrats who are worried that the same thing is happening to their party. They have good cause for concern.” Well, that’s true, and much—but certainly not all—of what Max has…
Forward!
Okay, it’s National Review week at Literature R Us. I’m bouncing this post off a nice review by NR’s Kyle Sammin of Brit historian David Cannadine’s new book, Victorious Century, The United Kingdom 1809 – 1906. I’ve got Victorious Century already loaded on my ebook, but my backlog is pretty massive, so I won’t be…
Bob Woodward a total tool, New York Times says. But not in so many words.
The New York Times has some sort of “feature” called “The Interpreter”, described as “a column by Max Fisher and Amanda Taub exploring the ideas and context behind major world events.” Today’s edition is dubbed “As Leaks Multiply, Fears of a ‘Deep State’ in America”: “A wave of leaks from government officials has hobbled the…
Who are you calling a war criminal?
At yesterday’s Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of State to be (or not) Rex Tillerson, Fla. Sen. Marco Rubio puffed out his young chest and demanded of Rex whether he considered Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” on the basis of recent bombing of civilians in Syria. Well, if you’re going to be secretary…
I spent $800 billion in Afghanistan and all they gave me was this lousy tee-shirt
As R. Jeffrey Smith, who hangs his hat at the Center for Public Integrity, so admirably demonstrates, every word of that headline is true, except the part about the tee-shirt. Jeff puts the blame on Hillary, but I’d give the lion’s share to President Obama, who rather gratuitously decided that Afghanistan was the “good war,”…
New Pentagon Strategy: Don’t fight real wars, prepare for imaginary ones!
As I’ve said before, if you want to know what official Washington is thinking, read Wash Post columnist David Ignatius. In his latest and greatest, David fills us in on what the Pentagon is thinking. The good news is, the Pentagon wants to stay out of the Middle East: “This generation of military leaders has…
British military spending falls from $57.7 billion to $57.7 billion, warns Washington Post
Following up on the angst of Anne Applebaum, the Washington Post devotes ample front page ink to the devastating news that Great Britain’s defense budget has shrunk from $57.7 billion to $57.7 billion from 2004 to 3013, or from 2.4 to 2.3 percent of total gross national product. To the surprise of absolutely no one…
The War Lovers
From 1929 to 1989, Americans lived in a state of almost perpetual crisis—the Great Depression, World War II, and then forty-four long years of contention with international communism. When the U.S.S.R. finally fell apart, the resulting silence was, it seems, more than America could bear. George H.W. Bush and his gang of “realists” conducted wars…
President Obama’s horrible, terrible, callous, cowardly, shamelessly opportunistic, and reasonably effective foreign policy
Over the past five years, President Obama has ended two wars and brokered a deal with the most intransigent of the many oil-rich Muslim nations who regard the U.S. as largely if not entirely a damn infidel pain in the ass. Of course, he’s killed a couple thousand innocent civilians and wasted several hundred billion…