Question of the day: are we winning?Answer:Asked point-blank whether the United States is winning in Iraq, Abizaid replied: "Given unlimited time and unlimited support, we're winning the war."In other words--no. We don't have unlimited time, and its rather clear that the Administration hasn't offered unlimited resources to its Commanders in Iraq. We've never been close to 200,000 troops in-country. Though....The general's comments effectively...

William Dobson has a piece in the current issue of Foreign Policy (subscription required, but I'll bet if you google around you can find a copy of the text someplace) provocatively titled "The Day Nothing Much Changed." In brief, Dobson argues that the terrorist attacks didn't change much about world politics, and that the really important change happened fifteen years earlier when the Soviet Union broke up -- the system went from bipolar to...

...or the lenders that prey on them?Conservative Congressman Blocking Crackdown on Predatory Lenders Targeting U.S. TroopsGlad he has a link on his website so that vistors can send a message of support to our troops. Guess that makes the mugging he is facilitating behind their backs okie dokie. Filed as: Geoff Davis

The recent flap about Pope Benedict XVI's remarks in a lecture at the University of Regensburg has been fascinating (in a somewhat macabre way) to watch. As Abu Aardvark has noted, the popular reaction to the remarks looks like a speeded-up film of the reaction to the Danish cartoons of the Prophet last year: various populist Islamist groups have seized parts of the lecture, pulled them out of context, and slotted them into a general narrative...

...since the Mets last won a division title. Hopefully they are not done. Gonna be an exciting October.Filed as: Mets

...with thunderous applause?There seems to have been a coup in Thailand.The BBC reports that:A faction of the Thai military led by the army chief says it has overthrown Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.Soldiers have occupied the prime minister's offices and surrounded them with tanks, while leaders of the coup attempt have gone to meet the king.Mr Thaksin, who is at the UN in New York, declared a state of emergency and said he had removed the...

Another day, another charge of "liberal hypocrisy." This time, Bill Thornton points out the odious double-standards of those who sought to get ABC to alter or pull "The Path to 9/11".Start with the total silence of the usual civil liberties suspects to say a word about this attempt at stifling someone’s First Amendment right to free speech. Where are the ACLU and its usual clichés about the “chilling effects” of such attempts? Where are all the...

Rajiv Chandrasekaran's report on how the Bush administration staffed the CPA raises an interesting counterfactual: What if the Bush administration had, in fact, bothered to develop a post-war plan for Iraq? Would it have made any difference given whom they chose to run the show?O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is...

These are the opening paragraphs of today's BBC story about the IAEA's reaction to a much-discussed August 23 congressional report, which played up Iran's alleged nuclear "threat": The UN nuclear watchdog has protested to the US government over a report on Iran's nuclear programme, calling it "erroneous" and "misleading".In a leaked letter, the IAEA said a congressional report contained serious distortions of the agency's own findings on Iran's...

Seriously, its like shooting Fish in a Barrel.Today, we're "safer, but we are not yet safe." In fact, "The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad." Its an important struggle, "In truth, it is a struggle for civilization."To paraphrase Jon Stewart, If the future of civilization depends on winning in Iraq, why not send just a few more troops? You know, to make sure we win and all.Oh, right, it was...

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I drove my wife to the Nanuet train station. We said goodbye and she got on the train to begin her commute into Manhattan. I went home and took a shower.Sometime later that morning I went downstairs to the basement of our townhouse, which doubled as my office. I started working on one of my projects. I can't recall whether I was revising chapters of my dissertation or working on an article-length project....