For those who haven’t heard it yet, the story of Curveball is an important component of the whole pre-war intelligence issue. I’m going to turn the mike over to Pat Lang, retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces, who served as “Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism" for the Defense … Read More
Bush Hearts Dissent
After all the GOP soldiers took turns taking potshots at Murtha, Bush said some odd words in China on the entire thing: People should feel comfortable about expressing their opinions about Iraq. I heard somebody say, well, maybe so-and-so is not patriotic because they disagree with my position. I totally reject that thought. This is not an issue of who’s … Read More
Rewriting Resolutions, Rewriting History
What a night on the floor of the House. For those of you in a cave, it went something like this: Conservative pro-war Democrat Rep. John Murtha from PA came out recently and spoke against the war, urging "immiediate withdrawal". For that, this decorated war hero was attacked by the Bush White House as being part of the "Michael Moore" … Read More
The Latest Coward
War supporters are fond of saying that troop withdrawal out of Iraq is "cutting and running". In fact, I just heard some Republican representative on C-Span say from the House floor that the mere talk of withdrawal hurts and endangers our troops fighting in Iraq. Mmmmm. I wonder what they would say about this coward — the U.S. commander in … Read More
I Kinda Hate It When Better Bloggers Say What I’ve Been Thinking
… but on the other hand, it means I don’t have to type as much. Here’s Josh Marshall: Some of the White House jabs against their critics these days are so fatuous and simple-minded that it’s hard not to step back every so often and wonder if they’re even serious. One of the silliest goes like this. We invaded because … Read More
Dumb Question
Captain’s Quarters asks: When will Democrats get through their head that our military comes under civilian control? This isn’t Starship Troopers, where only veterans make decisions on war and peace, and most Americans wouldn’t want to live in that kind of society. All due respect to Murtha’s Viet Nam service, but being an enlisted man in Viet Nam doesn’t make … Read More
Consensus And Majority
Only days ago, the folks at Redstate said that what the majority believed regarding WMDs supports the argument that Bush never mislead the country: The Democrats hope that by rewriting the history of how we decided to liberate Iraq they will convince the left wing extremist that they only voted to use force against Iraq because they were not told … Read More
Highly Recommended Reading
This escaped me, but I’m glad it came across my transom. [UPDATE: But Juan Cole’s excellant piece didn’t — read it too.] From August 3, 2005, William Odom (retired Army General, and the head of the National Security Agency in the Reagan Administration) deconstructs the arguments against pulling out of Iraq. The piece is entitled "What’s Wrong With Cutting And … Read More
Murtha-Lovin’
Drum reports: I don’t know if this is a Walter Cronkite moment or anything, but conservative Democrat John Murtha has decided that things are going so badly in Iraq that we need to withdraw now. Not on a timetable. Now. Shakes’ Sister asks: All I want to know is why a former marine and Vietnam veteran with over 30 years … Read More
An Odd Tactic
I’m confused by Powerline’s Jonah Goldberg. In his first editorial for the LA Times, he writes in favor of "a lie for a just cause". He doesn’t think that Bush mislead the public, but he says that IF Bush did, it’s okay because the cause was just. I have a hard time wrapping my head around that. Certainly, there are … Read More
Time Travel
Sometimes you see a headline, and you wonder if it is 2005 or 2002. Here’s one: Iraqi Minister Defends Torture Facility If this were 2002, we would be outraged and go to war to stop it. But it’s 2005, and the government of Iraq is our buddy. So it’s, you know, okay. Got that? Speaking of time travel, here’s an … Read More
Where The WMDs Went
Pretty intriguing title, yes? I thought so when I saw the same title at Powerline. "Oh, boy," I thought. "We’re going to finally learn where the WMDs went!" But the Powerline post wasn’t answering. Instead, it linked to an interview at Frontpagemag.com with one of the former UNSCOM inspectors. The interview was also provocatively entitled "Where The WMDs Went". "Oh, … Read More
Tried-And-True Methods
It’s interesting. Many people like me assert that the Bush Administration cherry-picked and exaggerated intelligence in order to convince people that we needed to invade Iraq. The Bush Administration is now fighting back by selecting "pro-war" quotes from prominent Democrats who now oppose the Iraq War. But even in doing that, the Bushies are cherry-picking and exaggerating the evidence. His … Read More
The Shelf Life Of Intelligence
Glenn Reynolds notes with approval this "pushback" from National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley: "We need to put this debate behind us," he said. "It’s unfair to the country. It’s unfair to the men and women in uniform risking their lives to make this country safe." Sadly, "don’t look behind the curtain" is not a convincing argument. It’s what the Wizard … Read More
Manipulating Intelligence – The Evidence
Kevin Drum does an end-run around name-calling, and simply offers the evidence (with supporting links): The case for manipulation is pretty strong. It relies on several things, but I think the most important of them has been the discovery that the administration deliberately suppressed dissenting views on some of the most important pieces of evidence that they used to bolster … Read More