Category Archives: The War

Racial polarization

Posted on March 22, 2008 | Comments Off on Racial polarization

I agree with VDH that, if you think racial attitudes are divisive now, just wait, as he predicts, til you see the outcome of the Dems’ Pennsylvania primary and the legacy of Obama’s defeat for the presidency. I always thought the fellow might be nominated but never believed he could win the general election. That should be obvious now that he’s taken to preaching to us about slavery and oppression and making offhand remarks about "typical white people." He was a novelty before, a black man running for office promising to transcend race. Now, with his refusal to disassociate himself from his anti-American, racist pastor, he’s just another black scold in the JJackson, ASharpton race hustler mode, and white people aren’t going to buy it. Oh, some of them will, sure. But there aren’t enough of them to elect Barry. And the resulting black anger could be shocking–or would be if we hadn’t already had the preview that started it all, the "KKK of A" rantings of Barry’s paranoid pastor of twenty years and counting.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Scribbles, The War

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Iraq victory

Posted on March 20, 2008 | Comments Off on Iraq victory

I confess that it makes me a little nervous to hear President Bush predict that the Iraq campaign will end in a victory. (The BBC has him already proclaiming victory, but, as we know, they are often fact-challenged.) The Dems, of course, already portray it as a defeat. Neither view seems entirely accurate. It certainly is the gentlest war this country has ever been in–fewest friendly, enemy and bystander casualties–despite lasting five years so far. I would expect it to take a lot longer, especially since we have tolerated, instead of eradicating, enemy sanctuaries in Iran and Syria. But even the media, when it is honest about it, knows the Iraqi people want us there. And it could very well turn out to be better for us, in the long run, even than bringing peace to Germany and Japan. Because, after all, Iraq’s is the region where we get much of our oil, and whatever we may think of the politics of oil, our economy and our lives depend utterly upon it.

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Posted in Iraq, The War

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The country he loves

Posted on March 19, 2008 | Comments Off on The country he loves

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So he said yesterday, anyhow, in the speech reviled by historian Victor Davis Hanson. The phrase reminded me of this picture and Barry’s, at the time, seemingly little protest against lapel flags and the old hand-over-the-heart when the anthem is played. However, after learning that he listened to anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-white screeds every Sunday morning for twenty years, I have to wonder who he really is. His anti-war stance turned me off before his questionable messianic persona surfaced, but I still liked the boldness of his race speech at first read–even when he threw his white grandma under the bus. (In the process, lying about her.) But I evidently missed some things. Mickey Kaus lists a few critical ones.

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Posted in The War

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Barry’s good speech

Posted on March 18, 2008 | Comments Off on Barry’s good speech

Sen. Obama could have taken the normal political course and run from the contradictions inherent in his initial denials about his mentor/pastor Jeremiah Wright. But he didn’t. At least not in his speech today in Philadelphia. I didn’t see it but read the transcript here. He didn’t explain why he chose twenty years ago to align himself with conspiracy-minded Black Liberation Theology, divisive as it is for a man who talks unity. But he made a fine stab at explaining why it is the way it is, and going some distance to refute it. His overall "from many, one" message also was impressive, and truly unifying. Now, if I only believed in the reliability of Democrat-run government to right all these wrongs he enumerates (though I disagree with him on Iraq, his attacks on corporations and the idea that government should help people "find good jobs"), I might want to vote for him. But I don’t, and so I won’t. But I do admire his unusual willingness to confront the Wright issue that, all by itself, could yet bring him down.

MORE: OTH, the speech really P,Oed Roger L. Simon, who calls it B,S. He makes a good point:

"…anyone who finds moral equivalence between Wright’s racist screeds and (Obama’s) white grandmother’s admitting to him in private that she feared black men on the street has got a serious problem."

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Posted in The War

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A Texan’s valor award

Posted on March 17, 2008 | Comments Off on A Texan’s valor award

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Army SPC Monica Lin Brown, a medic from Lake Jackson (south of Houston) who joined with her brother in 2006, becomes only the second woman since WW2 to earn the Silver Star for combat valor.

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Posted in Afghanistan, Texana, The War, Troops

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National Palestinian Radio

Posted on March 16, 2008 | Comments Off on National Palestinian Radio

That’s what playwright David Mamet calls NPR, which I also have stopped listening to, though for other (but similar) reasons, in this essay about why he no longer counts himself a "brain-dead liberal." Could be tough getting your plays produced that way, David. Not to mention sympathetically reviewed. (Note the outraged comments that follow the essay.) There’s also this amusing Pajamas Media piece about NPR’s brief February foray into conservative commentary. What I’m still awaiting is for the government to stop funding this one-sided outlet. Or at least refund that portion of my tax money that does so. Not going to happen? Certainly hasn’t yet.

Via Sine Qua Non 

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Posted in The War

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Adios Adm. Fallon

Posted on March 15, 2008 | Comments Off on Adios Adm. Fallon

Centcom’s boss is retiring, a year after he took the job, in what Westhawk says seem to be differences between Fallon and the Bush administration over Iran policy. Op-For essentially agrees and has a link to the Esquire article that may have precipitated the admiral’s problems. Perhaps. Could be Iraq policy, as well. An old Army friend who knows them both insists that Fallon can’t stand Gen. David Petraeus. Given the latter’s success, the former may have found, on his own, that his usefulness to Bush was at an end.

MORE: I’ve always admired Wretchard’s sense and sensibility about military matters. Mackubin Owens contends that Fallon was coming close to Union Gen. George B. McLellan’s insubordination.

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Posted in Civil War, The War

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