I have learned some things in the past few days. I thought I was a Conservative, but it now appears I was wrong. For years I have been committed to things like civil liberties (including the right to life), true federalism, limited government, low taxes, and free markets, and I thought that those beliefs were enough to get me into Conservative Heaven where I could drink a beer with Reagan and discuss the Laffer Curve. It turns out, that I was wrong. A sizable chunk of the “Conservative” orthodoxy around here have made a concerted effort to show me the error of my ways, and I, who had thought myself on the side of the angels, find that I am really a defeatist, Obama-loving, pinko Commie. (more…)

Captive Miranda, Lord knows I have not given a thought to the paperwork you sent me.

Let me tell you, Captive, that our release is not in the hands of the lawyers or the hands of America. Our release is in the hands of He who created us.

The poem, “To My Captive Lawyer, Miranda,” was written by Abdullah Saleh Al-Ajmi while he was a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. No doubt, it would have given the former detainee, who was released in 2005, immense satisfaction to know that his last earthly deed was referenced in Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissenting opinion in Boumediene v. Bush. That’s the recent Supreme Court decision that gave Guantanamo detainees the constitutional right to challenge, in habeas corpus proceedings, whether they were properly classified by the military as enemy combatants. Abdullah Saleh Al-Ajmi, on the left [above], in a martyrdom video posted on an al Qaeda Web site. Al-Ajmi, a 29-year-old Kuwaiti, blew himself up in one of several coordinated suicide attacks on Iraqi security forces in Mosul this year.

That’s how Debra Burlingame’s op-ed piece in today’s Wall Street Journal begins. Read the whole thing here.

(cross-posted)

The ultimate flip-flopper: Obamamessiah.

Hmmmm. Apparently, Mr. Chiroux isn’t going to allow poor academic credentials to stand in the way of him declaring the Iraq War to be “an illegal and unconstitutional occupation.”

In any event, enjoy Leavenworth, Mr. Chiroux.

Apparently Code Pink is having some trouble attracting participants to their ongoing protest in front of the Berkeley Marine Corps Recruiting Office. So much so that they have enlisted (pun intentional) the help of practitioners of the dark arts to foil Marine Corps recruitment and end the war. Read the article here.

“Women are coming to cast spells and do rituals and to impart wisdom to figure out how we’re going to end war,” Zanne Sam Joi of Bay Area Code Pink told FOXNews.com.

I am sure that wisdom is the last thing that will be imparted by this parade of horribles. Nevertheless, I look forward to the final score in this contest:

United States Marine Corps 1
Witches 0

Disgusting.

Dead x 1.2 million.

This post is in response to this one over at Obsidian Wings.

Every death is tragic. And I have nothing but the utmost respect for the brave men and women who have sacrificed their lives so that others may experience the same freedom/liberties that Americans do. But I confess that I find it hard to take liberals seriously when the highlight the deaths of our soldiers in Iraq every chance they get, yet turn a blind eye to the wholesale slaughter of 1.2 million unborn children every year here in the United States.

Were one inclined to view such matters uncharitably, one might conclude that some liberals only highlight the tragic deaths of our soliders for the purpose of scoring cheap political points.

I can vaguely understand the point of putting together blue ribbon commissions like the ISG in order to deliver solutions from a source that seems above politics.  I get that.

But doesn’t the whole exercise severely undermine one’s faith in our entire national security and foreign policy apparatus?  I mean, presumably, we pay a large number of highly expert persons quite well to conduct these affairs, and yet, a group of ex-politicians is supposed to be able to take several weeks, compile some data, and tell us what to do next?  Isn’t the best course of action something our very expensive Departments of Defense and State are supposed to be able to provide?

I think the ISG is exhibit A in favor of libertarianism.

ABC has the scoop.

Among many things, I am thankful that folks like Chief Master Sgt. John Gebhardt are serving our country in the military.

He represents everything that is noble and true about the men and women who bravely serve/protect our country in Iraq and around the globe.

May God continue to bless and protect our brave men and women in uniform.

Over the weekend I read Between Two Worlds- Escape From Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam. The author, Zainab Salbi, pens her account of living in Saddam’s psychological prison as the daughter of his personal Boeing 747 pilot. Those of you who saw the movie Downfall should also find this story interesting as well. Both reveal the frightening pathology of tyrants and their toadies. This book has been out for at least a year but I just discovered it. You can hear Salbi’s NPR commentary which was aired in December 2005.

A few months ago, Eric Martin was kind enough to contact me about a documentary that a good friend of his was working on called “The War Tapes.” He wanted to know if I was interested in screening the movie, and then possibly penning a review here at SA. I told him that I would be glad to do it, and then a few weeks later I received a copy of the documentary in the mail.

Now, I have to be honest for a moment. I expected this to be a Bush-bashing, leftist piece of propaganda, attacking President Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq. How wrong I was.

This is an extraordinary and powerful documentary, filmed entirely by soldiers, that follows the war-time experiences of three of our bravest from the beginning until the end of their tours in Iraq. The film shows the real-world impact that war on has on the men and women who wage it on our behalf, and I walked away from the film with an even greater appreciation for the tremendous sacrifices they make. In short, I think this film is about as close as one can get to beginning to understand the reality of war without actually going into battle. I cannot recommend ‘War Tapes” highly enough.

Soon I will be leaving our fair shores to return to Iraq.  Consequently, I will be taking a hiatus from all blogging activity for sometime.  However, I do hope to resume posting upon my return.  In the meantime I am sure that my co-bloggers will continue the good fight for freedom.

Semper Fi.

So a bunch of movie stars are participating in a “rolling” hunger strike to protest the war in Iraq.  And here I thought that they had just invented a new diet.  Hmmm…or maybe that’s what my kids do for dinner occasionally…I thought they were just bad eaters, but maybe it turns out they’re actually acting out a sophisticated consciousness-raising experiment.  Who knew?

So an Army LT doesn’t want to go to Iraq because he would be participating in “the wholesale slaughter of the Iraqi people” and thus in war crimes.  Huh.  He wouldn’t seem to qualify for conscientious objector status, since there are (presumably) some people he’s willing to fight.  So I say let him feel the consequences of his “conscience” and court-martial him.  Joel, could we send him to Leavenworth?

A New York Sun editorial points out that the recent arrest of 17 Canadian terror suspects flies in the face of the theory that Islamic fundamentalists target America primarily for our support of Israel and our involvement in Iraq.  The editorial points out that:

“Canada sent no troops to liberate Iraq. Our neighbor to the North so opposed the Iraq War that at least one American deserter fled there for safe harbor, as draftdodgers did during the Vietnam War.  And while Canada is mildly pro-Israel, and more so under its new conservative government, its arms sales to the Jewish state are peanuts compared to America’s, and at the United Nations on key votes it’s likely to abstain rather than join the America, Micronesia, and Palau in voting with Israel.” 

ME:  So why did these radicals want to target a liberal country like Canada?  The fact is that Islamic extremists hate us (the West) for our freedom, prosperity, and religious diversity.  They will always hate us and there is nothing we can do about it other than to hunt down those that commit acts of terrorism against us and to punish severely those nations that support such terrorists.  Hat tip to James Taranto at Best of the Web.

Is the military ignoring post traumatic stress and depression among our troops?  This article raises questions regarding the handling of psychological problems among those deployed to Iraq.

Twenty-two U.S. troops committed suicide in Iraq last year, accounting for nearly one in five of all non-combat deaths and the highest suicide rate since the war started, the newspaper said.

Some service members who committed suicide in 2004 and 2005 were kept on duty despite clear signs of mental distress, sometimes after being prescribed antidepressants with little or no mental health counseling or monitoring, the Courant reported. Those findings conflict with regulations adopted last year by the Army that caution against the use of antidepressants for “extended deployments.”

“I can’t imagine something more irresponsible than putting a soldier suffering from stress on (antidepressants), when you know these drugs can cause people to become suicidal and homicidal,” said Vera Sharav, president of the Alliance for Human Research Protection, a New York-based advocacy group. “You’re creating chemically activated time bombs.”

Although Defense Department standards for enlistment disqualify recruits who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, the military also is redeploying service members to Iraq who fit that criteria, the newspaper said.

My friend Tom Van Dyke over at Reform Club has a wonderful post on Bush, Iraq, and Tony Snow.  He sees Snow as a man on a rescue mission to help an administration that has sometimes been as inarticulate as its head man.

Listen to this NPR story on the Iraqi insurgency and tell me that I’m wrong to hear more than a whiff of sympathy for those thugs.  The insurgency, we’re told, only got going when Americans shot a bunch of civilians during a protest.  And the Sunnis and Al Qaeda folks just got together when the Shiites started going after them - because the Sunni Baathist bastards and Al Qaeda have never had it out for the Shiites, right?

Newly released pre-war documents reveal that the connection between Saddam and Bin Laden were more substantial than many previously thought.  One of the interesting tid bits in the document is that Saddam agreed to broadcast the lectures of Suleiman al Ouda, a radical Saudi preacher and mentor of Bin Laden, over Iraqi radio.  I guess this throws a wrench into the theory that a so-called secularist like Saddam would never work with a radical Islamist like Bin Laden.  Read the article here.  Hat tip to the Corner. 

According to the latest Gallup Poll, “[t]here has been little change in George W. Bush’s job approval rating in the last week,” noting that “[t]he March 13-16 Gallup Poll pegs his approval at 37%.”

So what’s the deal? Why are even staunch Republicans expressing dismay at the president’s job performance?

In my view, the primary reason so many people are unhappy with the president’s performance is due, in large part, to a lack of candor on the part of this administration, as well as its unwillingness to admit and come to terms with obvious mistakes.

For example, I support the war in Iraq, and have done so from the very beginning. Nevertheless, I think it is obvious to anyone, except perhaps Scott McClellan, that the management of this conflict has been less than perfect.

Now, I suppose some of y’all can point to examples where the president and/or his key cabinet members have owned up to a mistake here and there, but the overall perception outside the beltway is that this administration is unwilling to play it straight with the American people on the Iraq War and other matters.

To be sure, this is nothing new. We all know politicians are full of you-know-what, and never stop trying to put their spin on each and every issue of the day; but I think war is an entirely different matter.

When we go to war we place an enormous amount of trust in the president and Congress to do what is in our country’s best interest; and when things don’t go as planned, we expect the president to own up to any mistakes that have been made. Needless to say, I don’t believe President Bush has done a particularly good job at leveling with the American people in this respect.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I still support the war in Iraq and the liberation of the Iraqi people. Moreover, I think the “Bush Lied!” crowd is primarily comprised of people who oppose this president for the sake of opposing him. But regardless of this disingenuous opposition, the fact remains that the Bush Administration needs to do a better job of leveling with the American people about the situation in Iraq. It does an excellent job of highlighting all of the progress being made on the ground by our brave men and women, but I am afraid that the constant spin coming from McClellan et al. on any setbacks that take place in Iraq makes many Americans less likely to take anything these folks say seriously.

My advice to the president is this: When you screw up, admit it. Nobody expects you to be perfect. War is complicated and messy, and the American people understand this all too well. Just be honest about the situation, and tell us what you’re going to do to correct matters going forward (or what adjustments are being made). The American people, especially those in harm’s way and their families, deserve no less.

And the irony is that brutal honesty is the best way to defeat your opponents politically. Think about it. What if the president said something to this effect in his speech today marking the three year anniversary of the Iraq War,

“I have made some grave miscalculations in prosecuting this war. [Followed by detailed examples] And for that I humbly apologize to the American people, especially to our soliders and their families, who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Nevertheless, the liberation of the Iraqi people was the right thing to do, and establishing a democracy in Iraq is unquestionably in this country’s short term and long term national security interest.”

What would the dems say? Some would take issue with the substance of the president’s remarks, while many others would gleefully shout from the rooftop (in Daily Kos fashion), “See! See! I told you the president made all those mistakes, and now he finally admits it! Ha!”

Now, how do you think this would play with most Americans? My guess is that most of us would find the president’s candor refreshing, and the dems’ response childish and unproductive. But that’s just my take, I could be wrong.

In any event, I really believe that President Bush needs to jettison the bunker mentality he has grown so accustomed to and speak forthrightly with the American people about the situation in Iraq: The good, bad, and the ugly. Trust me on this Mr. President, it will work. And hey, things certainly can’t get any worse, right?