Category Archives: Iraq

Old Media honks for Baby Barry

Their readership/viewership declines every year, in part because they’re widely and quite correctly perceived as politically skewed Democrat. But, as usual, the Old Media is deaf to the criticism, so they’re suffering no shame at their announced plans to staff BB’s upcoming "world tour" big time, while continuing to shoo Mac away as, uh, too old, too boring, too Republican.

Afterall, now that the Iraq campaign is essentially over (no thanks to them or the Dems), they can safely leave the Green Zone hotel to have a look around as BB sings his get-out-now tune. The Old Media poobahs also gave preferential treatment to John Kerry, their ersatz war hero, in 2004, and we all saw how well that worked out–for him and for them–but my guess is they really didn’t catch on. They’re insulated by their exorbitant pay and the adulation of their peers, which makes them pretty slow when it comes to reality.

Mac: the surge is the key to Afghanistan

It’s the way to win the Afghanistan campaign, McCain says, logically enough…

"…if I’m elected President, I will turn around the war in Afghanistan, just as we have turned around the war in Iraq, with a comprehensive strategy for victory."

…versus Baby Barry’s unserious preference to abandon Iraq in favor of hunting down (the quite probably already dead) Osama bin Forgotten.

Via Belmont Club.

Iraq campaign over?

What, before Baby Barry could make his first trip there in more than two years? Before the Dems could cut and run? Independent correspondent Michael Yon says so. His colleague Michael Totten says it is all but over, and that we won. But this is the Middle East, not middle Europe. So minor violence could still occur, maybe even something spectacular. But basically, they insist, it’s all over, and we and the Iraqi people won it. Yay!

Via Instapundit.

UPDATE:  Even StrategyPage agrees the campaign is basically over. Now, they say, let the corruption begin. But I agree with Instapundit, I can live with that.

Bush in control

I don’t watch television much. Television, as someone said the other day, is for losers. So I didn’t watch the president’s news conference. So I didn’t get the sound of all the word fumbling that he normally commits–although he’s nowhere near as vacuous as Baby Barry. But in the transcript, which the White House makes available in these glorious Internet days when one is no longer hostage to whatever the newspapers are willing to print of it, or whatever the teevee and radio folks are willing to air of it, Bush reads pretty good–inspiring, even, unless you hate him as some do.

For one thing, he delivers the most succinct summary of the how of the war on terrorism that I’ve read in a long time, and there’s another good one on just how the oil companies are trying to take advantage of $140 a barrel oil by seeking more supply. Then there’s his take, repeated several times to similar questions, about how the American people are smart enough to adjust their own driving and thermostats without the nanny state’s help. Lord, yes. How could they not be? All in all, he sounds pretty confident to me, not at all the shell-shocked lightweight the Seablogger encountered on the tube. Maybe there’s a lesson here. Read the transcript, people. You’ve finally got it available whenever you want it. So read it.

War widows

The daily’s print edition has a compelling story (which, disgustingly, you have to dig for on their Web site!) about Iraq campaign widow Taryn Davis, who lives down the road in Buda. Her Web site for her American Widows Project is a poignant look at what these women (and a few men) are going through. What, for instance, do you do now with the Silver Star? This form of grief, it appears to me, is similar to growing old. Forgetting to bathe more than once a week, for instance.

An Iraqi boy’s dream

sadr_1.jpg

According to war correspondent Michael Yon, it’s to grow up to be an American soldier. Photo of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Fred Hampton, of Lexington, Ky., kneeling to talk with an Iraqi boy in Sadr City, June 20. Credit: U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Cohen Young, Joint Combat Camera Center Iraq.

Vets For Freedom

Cool new advertising campaign from group of Afghanistan and Iraq campaign veterans to counter the anti-war bilge of MoveOn.org. But something tells me there’ll be a vets for peace campaign to counter this one before long. May the best ad campaigns win! Though I’d prefer this one.

Via Instapundit