Last week, that music hall pair, Robert M. Gates and Leon E. Panetta, aka Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside, brought their good cop/bad cop routine to Dallas, Texas to answer questions about President Obama’s proposed incredibly small bombing of Syria. Gates, aka “The Thoughtful One,” said it was a bad idea while Panetta, aka “The…
Search Results for: WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
Rot at the Top: Why U.S. foreign policy seems unlikely to improve any time soon
Wouldn’t it be nice if the U.S. had a Middle Eastern expert who was, you know, actually from the Middle East? Someone who understood Islamic culture from the inside out, someone with wide experience and education in western academia but also well-traveled throughout the Islamic Middle East and Asia, someone with long years of hard…
The Education of Fred Kaplan
You’ve got to hand it to Fred: he’s not turning his back on Afghanistan, no matter how crappy it gets. Long ago, I used to ridicule Fred for his Pollyanna reports on our cool weaponry, including a 15-ton “Guided Multiple-Launch Rocket System” that, Fred insisted, people called the “70-kilometer sniper round,” which, coupled with our…
Rand Paul: Tiny Stone, Mighty Splash
Never underestimate the power of the human voice. After spending 13 hours of floor time warning America of the dangers of Hellfire missiles descending upon them as they bathe, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is suddenly the toast of much, though not all, of the Republican Party. After months of aimless pummeling with the President over…
The Electric Slide
Two recent stories in the New York Times should serve as a primer, or perhaps prophylactic, for whatever electric car jive President Obama has up his sleeve for tonight’s “State of the Union” address. The first, a tale of woe entitled “Stalled Out on Tesla’s Electric Highway,” by the immensely put-upon John M. Broder, explains…
The Coming Year
OK, it is a little early for New Year predictions, but nothing soothes an eggnog hangover like a little uninformed prognostication, so here goes: President Obama’s unexpectedly big win over hapless Mitt Romney continues to be a win/win/win/win. I have no idea of what’s going to happen regarding the “fiscal cliff,” and I really don’t…
Day after Thanksgiving Day reading—Paula Broadwell’s All In—the Critics Rave!
An invaluable link from Justin Logan at the American Conservative brings the blurbs for Paula “Keep your hands off my man” Broadwell’s tome on the glories of General Petraeus, whose genius brought us our glorious victories in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not! “A valuable perspective on how Gen. Petraeus—the most successful U.S. general of his generation—approached…
George Will, tying himself in knots, yet failing to score a touchdown
I find myself agreeing with George Will more often than I like. We are a one on free trade, for example, as well as campaign “reform” (aka incumbent protection and First Amendment reduction). I also admire his early criticism of President Obama’s decision to expand the war in Afghanistan, although his massive silence on civil…
Obama to Netanyahu: Don’t attack Iran! Let me do it for you!
Yes, that’s the plan of our president, Barack “The Republicans can’t paint me in a corner if I do it first!” Obama, promising that he can harass, and bully, and humiliate a nation of 70 million people into doing exactly what he wants them to do, shutting his eyes to the fact that he will…
Peace? Sure! Peace with frequent random murders and the occasional contrived crisis
Yesterday’s post, which implied, to quote Henry Kissinger, that peace is at hand, perhaps suggested that I’ve grown optimistic about our future. Well, not so much. Americans, and the American establishment, may be growing tired of our Afghanistan adventure, but we have yet to abandon the joys of remote-controlled murder. The Bureau of Investigatory Journalism…