A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Bush Appears Cool to Key Points Of Report on Iraq “President Bush vowed yesterday to come up with "a new strategy" in Iraq but expressed little enthusiasm for the central ideas of a bipartisan commission that advised him to ratchet back the U.S. military commitment in Iraq and launch an aggressive new diplomatic effort in the region.” (READ MORE)
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Block Padilla's Questioning of Pentagon “Federal prosecutors asked a judge Thursday to prevent Jose Padilla's defense attorneys from questioning Defense Department officials or obtaining documents about his treatment during 3 1/2 years in military custody as an ‘enemy combatant.’” (READ MORE)
Ex-Detainees Seek to Sue U.S. Officials “In a federal courtroom today, nine former prisoners at U.S. military prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan will seek through an unusual lawsuit to hold outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and top military commanders personally responsible for the torture they say they endured.” (READ MORE)
McCain Hits Report As 'Recipe' For Defeat “Sen. John McCain, joining a growing list of critics, yesterday said the Iraq Study Group's widely touted book of proposals for settling the war in Iraq is a recipe for defeat.” (READ MORE)
Israeli Prime Minister Rejects Link to Iraq “Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday rejected a U.S. advisory group's conclusion that resolving Israel's conflict with the Palestinians would help stabilize the war between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims in Iraq.” (READ MORE)
Uneasy Havens Await Those Who Flee Iraq “Iraqis fleeing the chaos of their country now threaten the social and economic fabric of Jordan and Syria.” (READ MORE)
News From the Front:
Bill Roggio writes Fallujah Today, and on Route Mobile “Patroling one of the two main arteries through the Fallujah region The city of Fallujah and its surrounding environs has both a symbolic and strategic importance to the security of Iraq. Fallujah is the city where al-Qaeda fought the U.S. forces toe-to-toe and lost. Fallujah is a rallying call to al-Qaeda. The city also serves as the gateway to Baghdad, the end of the line of al-Qaeda's Syrian ratlines which are used to run foreign fighters, money and weapons into the capital.” (READ MORE)
GWOTdotUS writes 2 cents on the ISG report “While I haven’t had time to really sit down and contemplate the entire manuscript thoroughly, I have perused it a couple of times and will say that, for the most part, I agree with most of the proposed plan. Indeed, a lot of what they have put together, I have been saying for a couple of years now. I couldn’t help but get the sense that the obvious was being stated repeatedly throughout the document, but apparently these notions are not obvious for some people. I did find a line that borders on the absurd:” (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Jules Crittenden writes The Enemy of Our Enemy = Our Enemy “Iraqi officials accuse Saudis of funneling millions to Sunni insurgents for weapons. Of course ‘Saudis Reportedly Funding Iraqi Sunnis’ is an AP report, so you have to worry about which parts of this they made up.” (READ MORE)
Oliver North writing at Townhall.com writes State of war II “’If everything went as planned, they wouldn't call it war.’ That was the tongue-in-cheek assessment of a U.S. Marine Major as to why our helicopter flight from Baghdad to Ramadi had been delayed for half a day. By the time we arrived on the LZ at this outpost of freedom it was the middle of an unusually cold, damp night. A proffered hot cup of coffee was gratefully accepted as the Major helped us load our backpacks, camera gear and satellite broadcast equipment aboard a dust-encrusted Humvee. Just hours later, this widely respected and much admired Marine officer and two brave U.S. Army soldiers were dead, killed by an IED -- an improvised explosive device -- the insidious weapon of choice for terrorists in Iraq” (READ MORE)
David Limbaugh writing at Townhall.com writes ISG: The granddaddy of armchair quarterback “It's painful to watch the Iraq Study Group (ISG) selectively invoking our Cold War policies to support their recommendation that we negotiate with our enemies. We didn't negotiate an end to the Cold War. We kicked the Soviets' rear end. Indeed, the very type of ‘realists’ in charge of the ISG largely opposed Ronald Reagan's confrontational approach toward the Soviets that enabled us to graduate from stalemate to victory.” (READ MORE)
Mona Charen writing at Townhall.com writes These are realists? “Recommendation 16 of the Iraq Study Group's report calls upon Syria to agree to a peace deal with Israel in return for the Golan Heights. It further suggests that Syria be persuaded to end its interference in Lebanon, cease aiding Hezbollah, convince Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist, and intervene to obtain the release of two captured Israeli soldiers.” (READ MORE)
Crazy Politico writes More of the Same “The Baker Hamilton Iraq Study was released yesterday, and contained, well, nothing that hasn't been suggested by others already. If you were looking to it, as many of us were, for some bold initiative, it's not there. Instead, more troops for a while, don't leave immediately, and get the region involved are what it suggests.” (READ MORE)
Victor Davis Hanson writes Losing the Enlightenment “A civilization that has lost confidence in itself cannot confront the Islamists. Our current crisis is not yet a catastrophe, but a real loss of confidence of the spirit. The hard-won effort of the Western Enlightenment of some 2,500 years that, along with Judeo-Christian benevolence, is the foundation of our material progress, common decency, and scientific excellence, is at risk in this new millennium.” (READ MORE)
Ian writes Video: Cafferty rips Richardson over border fence “No matter what you think of the guy, Jack Cafferty has them. He may be misguided on his views of President Bush and Republicans but his views on immigration are dead on. Former Clinton Sec. of Energy and current Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson got his ass handed to him on a silver platter by Cafferty on the room full of situation this afternoon.” (READ MORE)
Ace of Ace of Spades writes Thoughts On The Firestorm Over Iraq “The sudden determination -- now the Conventional Wisdom, according to the media -- that everything has gone to hell and that we must get out immediately if not sooner is almost entirely a creation of the Democratic victory in November, and the media's consequent emboldment to say clearly and forcefully the things they've been thinking since, oh, before the war began, and since the one-day ‘quagmire’ in the actual invasion when our troops had to stop moving due to sandstorms.” (READ MORE)
Captain Ed writes Perhaps Not Such A Hit At Home, Either “Earlier, I wrote that the Iraq Study Group proposal bombed with the nations most directly involved in its recommendations, especially with Iraqis. The report seemed to fare much better inside the Beltway, but it turns out that even there people question the report's policy recommendations:” (READ MORE)
Greyhawk writes The War in Raw Numbers “A quick test to see if you know what you think you know. As of 30 September 2006,
1. How many U.S. troops (Army, Navy, USAF, Marines, Coast Guard - Active Duty, Guard and Reserve) have deployed in support of OEF and OIF?
Of that number, what percentage were
2. Guard or Reserve?
3. Army and Marine Corps (Active, Guard, and Reserve) members deployed whose primary specialty is/was "infantry"?
4. Female?
5. Killed in hostile action?” (READ MORE)
Dan Riehl writes Frequent Flying Imam In The News, Again “ Infamous frequent flying Imam, Omar Shahin of Phoenix is in the news again after being removed from an airplane in Lakeland, Florida yesterday. Alert flight attendants and brothers, Emil and Conrad Swaboda claim they both informed Shahin that he was on their no fly list prior to his removal from the flight.” (READ MORE)
Chickenhawk Express writes This is the Problem in Iraq “We've got special study groups trying to determine what we need to do in Iraq. God knows how much we paid these pampered desk jockeys to pull together more terrorist appeasing crap. Want to know what the problem is in Iraq? I'll tell you and my opinion won't cost the taxpayers a damn dime. This is the problem in Iraq...” (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped writes Applied Diplomatic Narcissism “I have no particular interest in parsing the Iraq Study Group report. Many very smart people have taken a look at it and there is very little that is surprising arising from the efforts of these elderly celebrants of diplodancing to whom every problem can be solved by talking and, perhaps, treating the people most at risk as expendable and non-contributory. After all, there is really no other way to understand the thinking behind a report which proposes to determine the future of Iraq and Israel (the connection between the two remains difficult to grasp, but Baker assures us the connection exists) without ever consulting the peoples involved. There were no Iraqis, no American military, and no Israelis on the panel and very few were actually consulted.” (READ MORE)
Right Wing Nuthouse writes AMERICA COMING TO ITS OWN CONSENSUS ABOUT THE ISG “The blue blooded ‘wise men’ have spoken. The Iraq Study Group has dumped their report on the American people and surprisingly, there seems to be a somewhat unanimous feeling about what our foreign policy elites labored to produce; it sucks.” (READ MORE)
Don Surber writes The Boat People of Iraq “The American press is filled with all kinds of reaction to the Iraq Surrender Group's report -- except the reaction from the people who will have to deal with it: The Iraqis. They have lost 100,000 people in the effort to bring democracy to their country (actually return it; it had existed from 1958-1968 when the Stalinist Ba'ath Party took over). If Iraq is Vietnam, they are the Boat People.” (READ MORE)
Wretchard of The Belmont Club writes Die Wacht am Litani “Right after the Iraqi Study Group report's recommendation to engage Syria and Iran was released, and immediately after Robert Gates was overwhelmingly confirmed as the Secretary of Defense, and in the wake of a chorus proclaiming the need to build bridges in the Middle East, you'd think someone was listening. And somebody was. The AP/Breitbart reports:” (READ MORE)
John W. Lillpop writing at Basil's Blog writes If Bush Lied About WMD, So Did These Democrats! "Now that the bipartisan Iraq Study Group has issued it’s report, there seems to a pandemic of 'selective amnesia' among Democrats concerning the genesis of the Iraq war. As recounted in a previous column, when the question of using military force against Iraq was put before the U.S. Congress, 110 Democrats supported the 2002 Joint Resolution, which authorized President Bush to act as he ultimately did." (READ MORE)
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