A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Iraq at Risk of Further Strife, Intelligence Report Warns “A long-awaited National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, presented to President Bush by the intelligence community yesterday, outlines an increasingly perilous situation in which the United States has little control and there is a strong possibility of further deterioration, according to sources familiar with the document.” (READ MORE)
Senators Challenge Gen. Casey On Iraq War “Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Bush administration's nominee to be the Army chief of staff, got an unusually harsh reception yesterday from some members of the Senate Armed Services Committee for his performance as the top U.S. commander in Iraq over the past 30 months...” (READ MORE)
Border Policy's Success Strains Resources “Ringed by barbed wire, a futuristic tent city rises from the Rio Grande Valley in the remote southern tip of Texas, the largest camp in a federal detention system rapidly gearing up to keep pace with Washington's increasing demand for stronger enforcement of immigration laws.” (READ MORE)
Casey refutes Iraq pessimism “The outgoing U.S. commander in Baghdad yesterday broke with his superiors, including President Bush, by telling a Senate committee he does not agree with their dire assessments that the Iraq war is failing.” (READ MORE)
New RNC chief backs bill with guest-worker plan “Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, the Republican National Committee's new general chairman, wants Congress to pass an immigration bill this year that will include a guest-worker program with "earned citizenship" requirements for illegal aliens.” (READ MORE)
Texas deputy to pay price for defending self “A Texas deputy sheriff who fired shots at a fleeing vehicle after the driver tried to run him down faces 10 years in prison for injuring one of the passengers, a Mexican national being smuggled illegally into the United States.” (READ MORE)
Musharraf seeks Muslim unity to settle conflicts “Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has proposed that Muslim nations work together to end the violence in the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan.” (READ MORE)
From the Front:
The Online Chaplin writes One Day Closer to Someday “One day closer to someday. This is my new phrase for the deployment. We are each day one day closer to the day we will get to go home. We don’t know when that day is, but time stops for no one. This is the one thing I can count on and I am clinging to it. We are one day closer…” (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio writes Taliban linked to string of suicide attacks in Pakistan “Baitullah Mehsud, operating from Waziristan, is the ringmaster; Pakistan's real intent in negotiating ‘peace’ in South Waziristan: Pakistan's insurgency in the tribal belt and suicide attacks nationwide have not abated. Attacks on Pakistani government forces have become a regular occurrence in the tribal region. Today, three government employees were killed when their car was attacked by the Taliban outside the town of Mir Ali, in North Waziristan.” (READ MORE)
Michael Yon writes The Hands of God “He was dressed as a woman as he walked down the alley toward the mosque full of worshippers. It was Friday, just before Ashura, and the air was chilled. The bomb strapped to his body was studded with ball-bearings so that he could kill more villagers as they gathered for prayer.” (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Jonah Goldberg writes It's Not The Jews, Stupid “Wesley Clark, the retired general and once - and no doubt future - presidential candidate, says the United States is going to attack Iran. How does he know? Well, it's obvious, he told Arianna Huffington, ‘You just have to read what's in the Israeli press. The Jewish community is divided, but there is so much pressure being channeled from the New York money people to the office seekers.’” (READ MORE)
Charles Krauthammer writes The Fight in Najaf “This week the internecine warfare in Iraq, already bewildering -- Sunni vs. Shiite, Kurd vs. Arab, jihadist vs. infidel, with various Iranians, Syrians and assorted freelancers thrown into the maelstrom -- went bizarre. In one of the biggest battles of the war, Iraqi troops reinforced by Americans wiped out a heavily armed, well-entrenched millenarian Shiite sect preparing to take over Najaf, kill the moderate Shiite clergy (including Grand Ayatollah Sistani) and proclaim its leader the returned messiah.” (READ MORE)
Oliver North writes Purveyors of Pessimism “Those who think that U.S. political and media elites have "exclusive rights" to negative perspectives on how the War on Terror is being fought need to visit this ancient capital of a once great empire. Here in London, the valor of 5,600 British troops in Afghanistan and roughly 7,000 in Iraq is rarely mentioned.” (READ MORE)
Mona Charen writes A Farce and an Outrage “Mearns captures the spirit of Washington, D.C. We are in the midst of a criminal trial concerning the leaking of CIA covert operative Valerie Plame's name to the press. The man on trial did not do the leaking. The man who did the leaking is not on trial. The woman who is the subject of the fictional leak was probably not covert.” (READ MORE)
David Limbaugh writes Don't Underestimate Antiwar Forces “With the growing influence of the antiwar left in this country, particularly emboldened by the November congressional elections, I fear for our nation as I consider the strong possibility it could elect a liberal, antiwar commander in chief during wartime.” (READ MORE)
Burt Prelutsky writes Global Warming and Other Urban Legends “I don?t know how long urban legends have been with us, or why it is we never hear about rural or even suburban legends, but it seems to me there’s been a major change in these silly things over the past few years.” (READ MORE)
Rich Tucker writes The Audacity of Saying Nothing “Our lawmakers are getting set to say they oppose a policy, but they’re not prepared to do anything to change that policy. Instead of really debating the war in Iraq, our lawmakers will be debating a war in a vacuum. Instead of charting a way forward, they’ll chat senselessly about doing nothing.” (READ MORE)
Anne Yasmine Rassam writes Anti-war Protestors: Some Oldies But Not So Goodies “The anti-war rallies last weekend brought out the usual medley of retreads (Jane Fonda, the post-North Vietnamese Communist supporter, post-Turner, post-aerobics; the dynamic duo of Sarandon-Robbins; Sean Penn, the aging enfant terrible of Hollywood who tried to be a human shield for Saddam; Jesse Jackson, who specializes in giving eloquent speeches having no substance or meaning; politicians past their prime looking for some kind of resurrection such as Tom Daschle); the Code Pink leftists; pro-Saddam supporters in America; along with some fresh new 20-somethings; grieving relatives of American soldiers who have died in Iraq; and well-meaning anti-war activists of all kinds.” (READ MORE)
Kobayashi Maru writes Fairness Doctrine, Part II “My long post on the Fairness Doctrine yesterday has piqued my thinking. Thus, I'm going to be writing more about it in coming days. It's an issue that goes much deeper and has much broader implications than may be immediately obvious. The far left (and I'm going to try to use that term consistently in this series) has already identified it as a high-leverage battle--one that would make it much easier for them to pursue their other agendas to take us back to the 1970s.” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit writes Must read: U.S. troops say Iraqi army in Baghdad is filthy with JAM “How often do I tell you something’s a must read? It’s a must read. ‘[W]hile Iraq’s other main Shiite militia, the Badr Brigade, concentrated in 2005 on packing Iraqi intelligence bureaus with high-level officers who could coordinate sectarian assassinations, al-Sadr went after the rank and file.’” (READ MORE)
Lorie Byrd writes The Problem With the Edwards Estate “It is not necessary to understand law or public policy or national politics to know that no one needs a house that big. I am all for people enjoying the fruits of their labor, including having a big house and other things beyond their basic needs. But when you are preaching about poverty in America, in fact, basing your entire presidential campaign on that issue, you have to be an idiot to think people won't find such excess socially insensitive at best. Obnoxious and completely out of touch at worst.” (READ MORE)
Paul Weston writes Questioning the Sanity of Liberals “Is it possible to be well adjusted, attractive, educated, successful, and a liberal? Alternatively, is it possible to be both Politically Correct and a liberal at the same time? In order to understand the peculiar contradictions of contemporary liberalism it is necessary first to understand the meaning of classical liberalism circa 1900 and the liberalism of the West in 2007.” (READ MORE)
Don Surber writes The real danger from global warming “The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that it is “very likely” that man has sinned and will pay for it by causing penguins to march through the Sahara or something like that, the AP reported.” (READ MORE)
Right Wing Nut House writes NIE On Iraq Puts Burden For Progress on Iraqis “The most recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq contains few, if any, surprises regarding the situation on the ground in that bloody country but offers ‘a glimmer’ of hope that things can improve significantly:” (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden writes Nobel Piece Prize “What global warming has to do with peace is beyond me. Let me guess. Us hill dwellers won’t have to do battle with the beach dwellers over real estate. Thanks to Al Gore. But what effect Al Gore has had on the issue, also beyond me. His faux-science laden movie will not make the Earth cooler.” (READ MORE)
Chickenhawk Express writes Democrats Worry That Action Against Iran Will Increase President's Support “The Democrats just can't help themselves. They try to appear as if they are concerned about our soldiers and our country but it all boils down to one simple thing... Anything that might increase the support for the President is bad. Even if it means bending over and taking it from the backside courtesy of the terrorists.” (READ MORE)
Dan Riehl writes Questioning Arkin's Timing “Miraculously, it would appear as though Washington Post blogger William Arkin is alleged to have written a, for him, more reasonable post: A Note to My Readers on Supporting the Troops time stamped 5:31 AM: However, most everyone who read his second insulting post, The Arrogant and Intolerant Speak Out - time stamped 9:39 AM can't seem to recall the now middle post linked at top being there until sometime this afternoon. Is Arkin pulling a John Kerry by back tracking, or attempting a triple flip that would put a world class gymnast to shame? The latter may be more true.” (READ MORE)
Kat in MO writes Information War: American Media v. Military Doctrine v. Enemy Propaganda “Watching from the sidelines, it's hard to tell exactly how or why we are losing the information war. Depending on one's perspective, the American Media (often referred to as Main Stream Media) is thought to be ‘anti-military/anti-war.’ Not surprisingly, people point to polls regarding how journalists and other media staff identify themselves politically as to the reason the war is not being covered ‘favorably’ or why soldiers are not portrayed succeeding in their every day efforts.” (READ MORE)
Cassandra writes Does America Have A Duty To Support The Troops? “Under pressure, William Arkin has finally produced a thoughtful response to the soldiers in that NBC News video. At first glance his arguments might sound reasonable, but if they represent how mainstream America thinks, the young men on that film have ample reason for concern. It must be nice to be William Arkin. Because he lives in a free society he can say what he pleases without fear of punishment.” (READ MORE)
Dafydd writes The First Church of Fundamentalist Climate Change “Just before last Christmas, Dr. Heidi Cullen, ‘Climate Expert and host of The Climate Code’ on the Weather Channel, threw down the gauntlet on her blog at Weather.com. She attacked ‘global warming contrarianism,’ by which she appears to mean any scientist who is skeptical of the climate-change models enunciated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)... the political scientists who brought us the Kyoto Protocol. Dr. Cullen made it quite clear that there is to be no deviation from the law as laid down by the IPCC, and as preached through its acolytes at the American Meteorological Society:” (READ MORE)
Kat in GA writes Operation: Valentine: SUCCESS! “Operation: Valentine is hereby officially concluded! Almost 5,000 cards and LOTS of Valentine candy were shipped out to our deployed heroes today! The final postage tally was $267 -- $185 of it was covered by unsolicited, generous donations…” (READ MORE)
MaryAnn writes Angels & Heroes “Everyone in this photo is an Angel and a Hero: Becky is a deployed Soldier here for medical treatment who wanted to help out, Bill's a Vietnam Vet, and everyone else is a volunteer and a military family member (which makes them Heroes in my book).” (READ MORE)
Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.
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