If this troop increase is to combat insurgents in Iraq, why is Bush sending Patriot Missiles with them? Those terrorists have many medium range ballistic missiles?

Well, it'll be interesting to see how this turns out:The BBC has obtained evidence that Israelis have been giving military training to Kurds in northern Iraq ( Read more... )

To probably no one who's been paying attention's surprise, the House Intelligence Committee issues a report that, according to the IAEA, is full of fabrications:The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that the congressional report published last month contained "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated information", and that it took " ( Read more... )

The Guardian carries a story today suggesting that there may be a leadership challenge in the Labour party since Blair has refused to give a departure date. What most of these discussions miss is an important question: why would Blair continue to stay? The obvious answer is hubris, but I'm not so sure. It would be hard for him to miss how ( Read more... )

OK, so this bomb plot. Obiously, it is good that it was stopped. That goes without saying. But I'm being driven slowly insane by two different things right now ( Read more... )

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says America is in World War III and President Bush should say so. In an interview in Bellevue this morning Gingrich said Bush should call a joint session of Congress the first week of September and talk about global military conflicts in much starker terms than have been heard from the president ( Read more... )

Comments to have you quaking in your boots. From Bill Kristol, prominent neoconservative and editor of the Weekly Standard:the Iranian people dislike their regime. I think they would be - the right use of targeted military force - but especially if political pressure before we use military force - could cause them to reconsider whether they really ( Read more... )

So, is it still about terrorism now?Israel switched gears in its military campaign against Lebanon Monday and Tuesday, launching a series of debilitating air strikes against privately owned factories throughout the country and dealing a devastating blow to an economy already paralyzed by a week of hits on residential areas and crucial ( Read more... )

"what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over."
-President George W. Bush to Tony Blair
He didn't know his microphone was turned on. (Citation for full quote.) Another unintended gem, on the press conference:I'm just going to make it up. I'm not going to talk too damn long like the rest of them. Some of ( Read more... )

One of the definitions of madness is the repetition countless times of the same action, always expecting a different result. For more than half a century, the Israelis have been applying the tactic of massively disproportionate retaliation to every provocative act of resistance attempted by the Palestinians, expecting every time that this would ( Read more... )