President Bush made a surprise visit to Baghdad today.For several days, the Administration had been promoting a "major" cabinet meeting to "hone" its post-Zarqawi Iraq strategy. Up at Camp David, Bush had all of his Cabinet and senior advisors either in attendence or hooked in via teleconference.Well, lo and behold, on day 2, instead of having a teleconfrence with the new PM of the Iraqi Government, he drops into Baghdad (litterally, drops from...

As the Czech Republic leads the United States 2-0 at the half in the first World Cup match for both teams, it occurs to me how odd it is to be able to watch the game live on ESPN2 (which I am in fact doing at the moment). Last World Cup, it was much harder to get live coverage, even of the US team's matches, to say nothing of the matches of other and better teams. I was able to catch a fair bit of the tournament since I was in Germany for half...

A mutual friend sent my wife an email about EssayFraud.org. The site claims to protect students against "fraudulent" mail-order foreign-operated academic paper services. These scam artists, claim the staff at essayfraud.org, will either steal unsuspecting students' money or send them papers "riddled with grammatical errors and spelling mistakes." They note that:Foreign sites like [omitted] hire poor, ESL writers in Pakistan for as little as...

Victor Davis Hanson reviews Cobra II. Some of the highlights: Gordon and Trainor do not even inquire whether the ties between al Qaeda and Saddam’s intelligence agencies, which had prompted formal condemnation from both the Clinton administration and the Senate, might not have been a worthy casus belli in a post-September 11 world.Put "after the fold" in hereNor do Gordon and Trainor credit the still more telling fact that, following the...

Many prominent bloggers on the left side of the blogosphere are meeting this weekend in Las Vegas for the first annual "YearlyKos" convention. There are certainly multiple panels that sound interesting, though I have no idea how meaningful this convention will prove to be. From a social science point of view, it clearly seems like a political blog-related event worth watching.A few hours ago, for example, the convention featured a panel on the...

To say this event is dominating discussion in the MSM and blogosphere would be an understatement. So I'll do my part to pass along some things worth reading:David Ignatius on the potential breathing room afforded by Zarqawi's demise.Defense Tech on the weapons systems and techniques that took Zarqawi out and what it indicates about the mini-evolution of airpower.King Daddy in many ways echoes the senitments here at the Duck.Mohammad-Mahmoud...

My colleague Dan Byman explains why Zarqawi's death probably won't make things better, and may even make them worse (via Robin Varghese of 3 Quarks Daily):Still, the history of killing terrorist and insurgent leaders suggests that we must be cautious before declaring the death of any leader to be decisive. In 1992, Israel killed Abbas al-Musawi, the secretary-general of the Lebanese Hezbollah, to much self-congratulation. Although Musawi was a...

[Updated] Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi has been killed in Iraq by an air strike. Reaction about the impact this will have on the insurgency is noticeably more muted than comments following the capture of Saddam.And the fact that reactions have been measured is comforting since this administration has been anything but when it comes to purported "turning" and "tipping" points in Iraq. [Perhaps I spoke too soon.]My gut feeling is that it probably won't...

Bush today, speaking in Nebraska on immigration:This is a tough debate for America, it really is. It's a tough debate because it's one in which the language can sometimes send the wrong signals about what we're about. People are very emotional about this issue. And my admonition to people who are concerned about the immigration debate is to remember that language can send signals about who we are as a nation. That harsh, ugly rhetoric on the...

Daniel Drezner asks:What is new and essential in international relations?Tyler Cowen worries that after a burst of innovation in the late eighties, economics has gone a bit stale:I see mid-1980s as the end of a great era in economic theorizing. Take game theory, principal-agent theory, and the economics of information, and apply them to everything, for better or worse. This was an exciting, indeed intoxicating, time to learn economics. While...

Within the span of five months in 2004-2005 remakes of two "classic" science-fiction series entered their regular seasons. The first regular episode of the "re-envisioned" Battlestar Galactica aired in October of 2004. The first episode of the new Doctor Who series aired in Britain in March of 2005. Battlestar Galactica has already emerged as perhaps the best science-fiction television series ever made, and probably one of the best television...

Most of the evidence suggests grounds for cautious optimism about the prospects for some sort of deal with Iran. Already, some (admittedly obscure) right-wing bloggers are crying foul over the carrots on the table. Others trumpet Bush's "diplomatic coup." What should we make of all this?First, liberals shouldn't begrudge giving credit to the Bush administration if they're able to negotiate a deal. We should, rather, welcome its embrace of...