A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
U.S., Iraqi Negotiators Agree on 2011 Withdrawal - BAGHDAD, Aug. 21 -- U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have agreed to the withdrawal of all U.S. combat forces from the country by the end of 2011, and Iraqi officials said they are "very close" to resolving the remaining issues blocking a final accord that governs the future American military presence... (READ MORE)
Houses Add Up to A Snag for McCain - Sen. John McCain's inability to recall the number of homes he owns during an interview yesterday jeopardized his campaign's carefully constructed strategy to frame Democratic rival Barack Obama as an out-of-touch elitist and inspired a round of attacks that once again ratcheted up the negative tone... (READ MORE)
Russian Forces Show Signs of Retreat in Parts Of Georgia - TBILISI, Georgia, Aug. 21 -- A day before the deadline for their promised retreat from Georgian territory, Russian troops showed signs of withdrawal in some places Thursday but announced plans to strengthen their presence in others. (READ MORE)
From Israel, a Call for Patience - JERUSALEM, Aug. 21 -- Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni warned Thursday against outside efforts to pressure Israel and the Palestinians to come up with a peace agreement this year, saying violence could erupt if they fail to meet international expectations. (READ MORE)
China Says 6 Americans Detained Over Protest Could Be Held 10 Days - BEIJING, Aug. 21 -- Six Americans detained by police this week could be held for 10 days, according to Chinese authorities, who appear to be intensifying their efforts to shut down any public demonstrations during the final days of the Olympic Games. (READ MORE)
Obama Says He Has Chosen His No. 2 - CHESAPEAKE, Va., Aug. 21 -- Sen. Barack Obama announced on Thursday that he has decided on a running mate -- but declined to provide a name, fanning already intense speculation about the choice. (READ MORE)
Obama Camp Has Many Ties to Wife's Employer - A few years ago, executives at the prestigious University of Chicago Medical Center were concerned that an increasing number of patients were arriving at their emergency room with what the executives considered to be non-urgent complaints. The visits were costly to the hospital, and many of the patients, coming from the surrounding South Side neighborhood, were poor and uninsured. (READ MORE)
Wealth barbs take hold as Obama slips - CHESTER, Va. The two rich men who want to be president traded new attacks Thursday accusing each other of being out of touch with the Americans, as Sen. Barack Obama got more aggressive amid his slipping poll numbers. (READ MORE)
Hospital released vet who refused study - An Army veteran seeking treatment for his sudden loss of motor skills was turned away from a veterans hospital in the Bronx, N.Y., in May 2007 after he refused to participate in a human subject experiment on Alzheimer's disease. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Charles Krauthammer: NATO Meows - Read the first five paragraphs of the NATO statement on the Russian invasion of Georgia and you will find not a hint of who invaded whom. The statement is almost comically evenhanded. "We deplore all loss of life," it declared, as if deploring a bus accident. And, it "expressed its grave concern over the situation in Georgia." Situation, mind you. It's not until paragraph six that NATO, a 26-nation alliance with 900 million people and nearly half of world GDP, unsheathes its mighty sword, boldly declaring "Russian military action" -- not aggression, not invasion, not even incursion, but "action" -- to be "inconsistent with its peacekeeping role." Having launched a fearsome tautology Moscow's way, what further action does the Greatest Alliance of All Time take? Cancels the next NATO-Russia Council meeting. (READ MORE)
E. J. Dionne Jr.: Obama vs. August - Don't worry, Democrats, the worst of August is over. Like baseball players, political people are superstitious. In the Democratic imagination, August is the month when Republican presidential candidates destroy their opponents with clever, underhanded attacks that meet with ineffectual responses. Democrats are petrified that if John Kerry was Swift-boated in August 2004, Barack Obama was Paris-Hiltoned this summer, and there will be no coming back. Never mind that this analysis is based on the experience of exactly one election. Superstitions are not necessarily rational. This time, Democrats decided that, as a political matter, they would end August early by holding their convention and unveiling a running mate during the month of the jinx. But you don't have to be superstitious to notice that the polls have edged in John McCain's direction since June, or that Obama seemed to lose the initiative from the moment he returned from his foreign journey last month: (READ MORE)
Richard Holbrooke: What the West Can Do - TBILISI, Georgia -- Given the tremendous damage Russia inflicted on Georgia, it is easy to conclude that Moscow has achieved its objectives. But so far Moscow has failed in its real goal -- getting rid of Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's pro-democracy, pro-American president. To be sure, Russia has tightened its control of the separatist enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It shattered the Georgian military, grievously damaged Georgia's economy and stirred up discord within the Western alliance. For three years, it has tried every conceivable tactic to bring him down -- fomenting a domestic uprising, imposing an economic blockade, beefing up its forces in the enclaves and finally a war. Yet Saakashvili is still in power. Here in Tbilisi, tension is understandably high. Russian tanks are less than 25 miles away, and the wheat fields along the main road to Gori were ablaze, set on fire by Russian troops... (READ MORE)
Charles Krauthammer: The Understated Georgian Crisis - WASHINGTON -- Read the first five paragraphs of the NATO statement on the Russian invasion of Georgia and you will find not a hint of who invaded whom. The statement is almost comically evenhanded. "We deplore all loss of life," it declared, as if deploring a bus accident. And, it "expressed its grave concern over the situation in Georgia." Situation, mind you. It's not until paragraph six that NATO, a 26-nation alliance with 900 million people and nearly half of world GDP, unsheathes its mighty sword, boldly declaring "Russian military action" -- not aggression, not invasion, not even incursion, but "action" -- to be "inconsistent with its peacekeeping role." Having launched a fearsome tautology Moscow's way, what further action does the Greatest Alliance Of All Time take? Cancels the next NATO-Russia Council meeting. (READ MORE)
Lorie Byrd: The Case Against Obama - In His Own Words - It would be hard to make a better case against a Barack Obama presidency than the one Obama has made in his own words. The most memorable thing about Obama’s speeches is not generally what he says, but rather how large and enthusiastic the audiences are. If voters pay attention only to the symbolism and get caught up in the excitement of the Obamessiah and his throngs of fainting disciples, he stands a good chance of winning in November. If voters pay attention instead to the things Obama is saying, the case against an Obama presidency will be clear. Obama’s youthful appearance is often cited as one of his biggest assets, but when he opens his mouth he doesn’t always come off as presidential or even particularly intelligent. The political figure who perhaps has received the most ridicule in the past twenty years is Dan Quayle (due largely to a misspelled word on a flashcard he read during an appearance at a school). (READ MORE)
Michelle Malkin: Abu Ghraib-i-fying America's Schools - The citizens of the world who hate America are going to love the latest agitprop released this week by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. In a document titled "A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools," the left-wing groups seek to paint a horrifying portrait of the nation's classrooms as Abu Ghraib-like torture chambers. The report compiles sob stories of students humiliated after being disciplined by school officials for unruliness, and claims that minority students are "disproportionately targeted" for punishment. Citing international law and threatening lawsuits, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU are demanding that the White House and Congress ban physical discipline in all public schools. The report says that "more than 200,000 U.S. public school students were punished by beatings during the 2006-2007 school year,"... (READ MORE)
David Limbaugh: The 'Swiftboating' Charge and Infanticide: A Guilty Diversion - You can always tell when you've scored points against a liberal candidate. He and his minions, following the combined examples of Bill Clinton and John Kerry, immediately assume counterattack mode -- rather than addressing the allegations -- and accuse the accusers of "Swiftboating," by which they mean smearing with false charges. John Kerry's handlers adopted the technique when Kerry's fellow Swift boat veterans unveiled his true military record after Kerry brazenly made his record an essential campaign issue. They attempted to turn the table on the truthful Swiftees by painting them as liars. The episode proved that the mainstream media will go to any lengths to save a floundering Democratic presidential campaign, including conspiring to manufacture a new word for our political lexicon designed to discredit and silence the accusers. (READ MORE)
Kathleen Parker: Obama's Born-Alive Problem - Abortion is back with, dare we say it, biblical vengeance. Republicans recently have been focused on Barack Obama's opposition several years ago to "born alive" legislation in Illinois that mirrored similar federal legislation aimed at granting personhood to a fetus/baby that was alive after removal from its mother's body, either by abortion or premature birth. In the past few weeks, Obama has been accused of everything from favoring infanticide to lying about his vote, to inventing a cover-up, to being a baby-killing extremist. Politics is no place for the squeamish. What is more likely true is that Obama is studiously cautious, too smart by half, and ambivalent to a fault. Suddenly, the man whose campaign seemed helium-propelled is being pulled back down to Earth by the force of his own vagueness. Abortion, of all things, has become his kryptonite. (READ MORE)
John Hawkins: 25 Reasons You Might Be A Liberal (Part 2) - With yet more apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, you just might be a liberal if... * You blame the oil companies for high gas prices, but believe in doing everything humanly possible to keep them from drilling for more oil. * You'd have no problem with a Democratic President talking with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Kim Jung-Il without conditions, but would be very upset if he started seriously negotiating with Republicans over national security or energy issues. * You don't see a conflict between "supporting the troops" and trying to insure that they lose the war that they're fighting. * You think the solution to an underperforming economy is higher taxes, more regulations, and publicly attacking businesses, but don't understand how that relates to the phrase, "The beatings will continue until morale improves." (READ MORE)
Brent Bozell III: Bracing for The Goo - When Sen. John Kerry arrived in Boston for the last Democratic convention, the TV news stars thought they'd died and gone to political heaven. Dan Rather said Kerry's speech drove the crowd in Boston into "a 3,000-gallon attack about every three minutes," and Newsweek's Jon Meacham was comparing Kerry to Abraham Lincoln on MSNBC. If media liberals can get that excited over Kerry, viewers may have to worry about the anchors lapsing into diabetic comas over Barack Obama's ascension convention in Denver. It's easy to forget just how "tick tight," as Rather once put it, the primary race was between Obama and Hillary Clinton. It ended up with a vote gap of just one tenth of a percentage point. The real difference-maker in the 2008 race was the Obama favoritism of the national media, led by the television networks. It was his margin of victory. (READ MORE)
Patrick J. Buchanan: And None Dare Call It Treason - Who is Randy Scheunemann? He is the principal foreign policy adviser to John McCain and potential successor to Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski as national security adviser to the president of the United States. But Randy Scheunemann has another identity, another role. He is a dual loyalist, a foreign agent whose assignment is to get America committed to spilling the blood of her sons for client regimes who have made this moral mercenary a rich man. From January 2007 to March 2008, the McCain campaign paid Scheunemann $70,000 -- pocket change compared to the $290,000 his Orion Strategies banked in those same 15 months from the Georgian regime of Mikheil Saakashvili. What were Mikheil's marching orders to Tbilisi's man in Washington? Get Georgia a NATO war guarantee. Get America committed to fight Russia, if necessary, on behalf of Georgia. (READ MORE)
Hugh Hewitt: The Obama Platform Dive: Senator Empty Suit DQs - As Obama's very big adventure gets underway in Denver, he has a problem. Lots of problems, actually. First, Obama appears to be prompter-dependant. The story that he cannot string together coherent arguments away from a prompter surfaced on Thrusday and Rush gave it huge legs. Now even the MSM will be watching to see if The One is using a virtual cheat sheet on the road. Then there's the lingering triple play of scandals: Obama's vote and speech against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act that stuns and repulses even moderate pro-choicers; his ties to Bill Ayers and the ongoing cover-up of the documents surrounding that relationship by the University of Illinois; and of course now that houses are at the top of the news cycle, the Obamas' sweetheart house deal with crooked financier and Obama mentor Tony Rezko. That's ten weeks worth of scandal floated in one day. (READ MORE)
Oliver North: Report From a Forgotten War - HERAT PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN -- Our Fox News' "War Stories" team has moved to a former Soviet military base in western Afghanistan, about 50 miles from the Iranian border. We're now with the 207th Afghan Commando Battalion and their U.S. Special Operations Command, Army and Marine counterparts. This remarkable unit celebrated the 89th anniversary of Afghanistan's independence from Great Britain this week with a capture-kill mission on a Taliban stronghold. In Khost, 400 miles east of here, near the border with Pakistan, Taliban terrorists observed the anniversary by killing 11 of their countrymen in a suicide car bomb attack against a U.S. base and followed up with a human wave of suicide bombers unsuccessfully storming Camp Salerno. In Kabul, President Hamid Karzai and U.S. officials commemorated the end of British rule with a quiet memorial ceremony for those killed in the current fight for a free Afghanistan, which has gone on for seven years. (READ MORE)
Cliff May: War and Peace: Petroleum Gives Putin the Power to Wage the Former and Set Terms for the Latter - Perhaps money can’t buy love, but it can certainly purchase power. So as oil prices have been rising, the major oil-producing nations have been gaining clout. Petroleum is no ordinary source of wealth. It is - or has become - a strategic resource: People in the West can no longer do without it. A sudden restriction in the supply would produce wrenching changes in our way of life. Lacking fuel, our military would cease to function. In the midst of a global conflict against militant Islamist regimes and movements, that’s a problem. Russia holds the world’s largest natural-gas reserves and the eighth-largest oil reserves — energy on which Western Europe has come to depend. Russian strongman Vladimir Putin appears to have thought long and hard about how to exploit these facts. (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Democrats Really Wanted To Go There? - So, today's latest and greatest kerfuffle revolved around a question posed of Sen. John McCain over how many homes he owned. He couldn't give a definitive answer and said that his staffers would have to get back to them. Democrats quickly pounced on this. Why? Well, they thought they had a gotcha moment, but I think they didn't entirely game this out, but we'll get to that in a moment. They quickly attacked McCain, as seen in this video with Gov. Tim Kaine doing the attacking. It's got all the usual leftist tripe, including class warfare and belittling McCain because he's managed to accumulate wealth and supposedly is out of touch with the common folk. Sounds great, but it's less filling. In fact, it's empty calories because there's nothing there. (READ MORE)
Donald Douglas: Obama's Class Warfare - I'm sure many engaged in today's huge controversy over John McCain's houses believe they've found a winning ticket in portraying the Arizona Senator as "elitist" and "out of touch" with average Americans facing economic dislocation. Barack Obama led the charge himself at a campaign rally today in Chester, Virginia, where he claimed: “I guess if you think that being rich means you gotta make five million dollars, and if you don’t know how many houses you have, then it’s not surprising that you might think the economy is fundamentally strong.” There's no other way to look at Obama's outburst (and the left's piling on) than anything besides rank class warfare. Maybe this tack will play well in stoking latent working class resentments at inflation, housing instability, and rising unemployment. Maybe this meme will stick if the American electorate is undergoing a fundamental shift in ideological orienation toward the abandonment of free market competition and opportunity-based upward mobility. (READ MORE)
Dafydd: John McCain: Safe As Houses - minor update - So John S. McCain is "rich" and "out of touch" because he didn't know offhand how many residences he and his wife own. Right? Well, perceptions sometimes overrule reality; but for this post, let's talk about the reality. Cindy McCain inherited a vast fortune, today worth possibly as much as $100 million, from her beer-distributing father, James Hensley; Hensley & Co. is one of the largest distributers for Anheuser-Busch. When you have what Friend Lee's uncle calls "a lotta hell money," you would be a fool to manage it yourself. You have a veritable army of accountants, probably at several different firms, each specializing in a different aspect of money management. Anybody who has ever had a 401K or IRA account and chosen to let professionals manage it -- which includes a great many middle-income Americans who are not by any stretch of the imagination "rich" -- understands McCain's dilemma... do all those people really know, offhand, exactly what stocks, bonds, commodities, or real properties in which their accounts are invested? (READ MORE)
Big Dog: Did McCain deke Obama? - Barack Obama handed John McCain a gift when he attacked McCain by trying to associate him with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. McCain shot back quickly and the smack had to leave a mark. That was quite accidental and a tactical mistake on Obama’s part because it left Obama open to guilt by association and he has a lot of bad associates. Did John McCain deke Obama with regard to how many houses he has? McCain was asked, in an interview, how many houses he and his wife owned. He said he was not sure and would have his staff get back to the reporter. Was this intentional so that Obama would attack him on a housing issue? If Obama were to bring up the issue of houses then McCain would be free to attack Obama on his shady house purchase in which a now convicted associate bought some property that Barry could not afford in exchange for political favors. This got no traction in the primaries especially since there was a picture of the same associate (Tony Rezko) with Hillary and Bill. (READ MORE)
Grim @ Blackfive: You've Got To Be Kidding Me: Or, Yeah, Let's Courtmartial Petraeus - What is the purpose of the US military -- to win the wars its nation sends it to fight, or to make sure they don't say anything that anyone might possibly construe as an insult? “[E]ven if Petraeus offered his comments personally, that's a distinction without a difference. ‘Privately he's denigrating 21 percent of troops,’ Weinstein said. Suppose he privately denigrated women, African-Americans or Jews? Weinstein asked. ‘He should still be relieved of duty and court martialed,’ he said.” Right. I'm sure we'll be pulling GEN Petraeus from his duties any day now, in order to ratify this particular... crusade. The book in question was written by a Chaplain, who has an obligation to tend to the religious needs of soldiers as best he can, without regard for denomination or faith. I realize that some of our friends are unclear on just exactly how religion functions within the US military, so it must seem frightening to learn that a general officer has religious feelings. (READ MORE)
Blonde Sagacity: It's Still Obama VS. Hillary - The campaigns both claim new bonds of unity, but talk to any former Hillary supporter for 2.3 seconds and you know that's a crock... I'm sure seeing the latest Zogby/Reuters poll that Obama had not only squandered his 7 pt. lead over McCain, but was now 5 pts. behind didn't help instill the needed confidence in Barry... "A massive e-mail and Internet campaign is under way aimed at derailing the nomination of Barack Obama and making Hillary Clinton the party’s standard bearer next week at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. “I think it’s divisive for the ‘Support Hillary’ campaign to continue at this time. She made the decision to fully support Mr. Obama,” said Lowery, who initially supported Clinton but later switched his allegiance to Obama. “I don’t know why they’re not taking their cue from Hillary and falling in line.” (READ MORE)
Walid Phares: Europe must realize: Jihadism is an Ideology not only a theology - Jihadi terrorism is one of the largest threats Europe and the international community are facing in this era. Hence studying Jihadi terrorism beyond the formation and the dismantling of cells is highly relevant to Europeans because of the impact of its actions on security, politics, and economy. Jihadism is putting significant pressure on European foreign policy regarding where and when Europe can intervene in an international crisis such as those in Afghanistan, Lebanon and Darfur. It is also putting pressure on the European economy through the choices made in foreign policies. But the inability to explain these pressures is a major reason behind the strategic failure in containing and reversing the threat which continues to expand and grow across the continent. (READ MORE)
Dadmanly: Media Malfeasance (Part 5,697) - Reporters and editors of the Associated Press (AP) just can’t help themselves editorialize in “news” reports on events in Iraq. With news of US and Iraq reaching preliminary agreement on a framework for limited, condition-based withdrawals of American forces from Iraq, the AP steps back in time to gratuitously label our efforts an “increasingly unpopular war:” “Iraq and the U.S. have reached preliminary agreement to withdraw American forces from Iraqi cities by next June, six years into the increasingly unpopular war, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Thursday after meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.” Talk about stuck in the past! You have to wonder if the AP has had a template prepared, come the day when an official agreement for US forces coming out, and that the template hasn't been updated since the "unpleasant" reversal of fortunes in Iraq. (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: Video: Live from the Democratic convention, it’s … Michelle? - How could she resist the lure of Truthers, anarchists, Hillary nuts, and assorted victimized progressives from every planet in the left-wing galaxy turning Denver into the Mos Eisley cantina for a week? The Mint levitation alone is worth the cost of transportation. Prediction: The protests will be an enormous fizzle, but the harrowing stories of young liberals having to survive on juice and graham crackers for a few hours inside “Gitmo on the Platte” will haunt America forever. Exit quotation: “There’ll be a lot of estrogen and a lot of aggrieved people here for sure.” (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: NYT: “The surge, clearly, has worked” - The New York Times ventures where Barack Obama fears to tread. In his profile of General David Petraeus, Dexter Filkins admits what everyone but Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and the Democratic presidential nominee understands — that the change in tactics and manpower at the beginning of 2007 dramatically improved the fortunes of Iraq and the war on terror. Now, with Petraeus ready to take his well-deserved promotion, he warns that it could still slip through our fingers: “The arrival of the 30,000 extra soldiers, deployed to Baghdad’s neighborhoods around the clock, allowed the Americans to exploit a series of momentous events that had begun to unfold at roughly the same time: the splintering of Moktada al-Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army; the growing competence of the Iraqi Army; and most important, the about-face by leaders of the country’s Sunni minority, who suddenly stopped opposing the Americans and joined with them against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and other local extremist groups.” (READ MORE)
Quid Nimis: Only The Very Best - I am not conspiratorial by nature. I believe that conspiracies take place pretty much constantly, but most of the time, the vast majority of the time, they are obvious in their motivation. When you start seeing too many switchbacks in the road to a motive, you have a conspiracy that needs to be consigned to the kook pile. With the black helicopters and the second shooters and the Trilateral commission. But and however, occasionally there comes a conspiracy that is just too good to resist. One that is delicious, toothsome, handsome in its proportions and filled to the brim with more plot nuance than a Jane Austen novel. I relish a conspiracy that the kook fringe on both ends of the spectrum can sink their teeth into and find their little bean, like the happy child munching an Epiphany King cake. I have found just such a conspiracy. And you know what- I'm halfway convinced that there is something to this, but I'll let you decide. (READ MORE)
The Sundries Shack: Obama: Hey, You Know Who Is A Lot Like Russia? Us - I must confess, I do not understand people who can not criticize the wrongs of another nation without reflexively criticizing the perceived wrongs of the United States as well. That sort of “Yeah, well, we’re not any better” response grates on me for a couple reasons. The most obvious reason is that, generally, the criticisms are either not true or are overblown to fit into the gaping hole of moral relativism the speak has created. But the biggest reason is because those who are quick to equate America with assorted tyrants and haed-choppers are never so quick to praise or thank America for her manifold examplary qualities. They liberally give the benefit of the doubt to totalitarians and rarely give the same to you and me. Their ingratitude to America for the opportunities they have had to grow wealthy and influential (often far beyond their abilities) (READ MORE)
David Bernstein: Amnesty International: Verdict First, Evidence Later? - On April 16, 2008, a shell from an Israeli army tank on a counter-terrorism mission in Gaza killed four civilians, including a Reuter’s cameraman, Fadel Shan. On April 18th, well before Israel (or anyone else) could conduct a serious investigation, Amnesty International sent out a press release stating that "Fadel Shan appears to have been killed deliberately although he was a civilian taking no part in attacks on Israel’s forces." The Israeli army eventually conducted an investigation, which resulted in a seventeen-page report sent to Reuters, but not released to the public, or published by Reuters. A summary released by IDF states: “The facts show that the incident occurred against the backdrop of severe hostilities in the area. Earlier in the day three IDF soldiers had been killed in an attack and there was continuous mortar and anti-tank fire directed against IDF forces.” (READ MORE)
Ron Winter: Rocky Roads Ahead in Denver; Obama, The Ice (Wo)Man Cometh! - The Democratic National Convention is upon us and for sheer entertainment value, this is shaping up to be better than the Olympics - way better. We have protest groups, we have warehouse-sized jails waiting for the protest groups, we have a divided party, we have the ho-hum story of who will get picked to run with Barack Obama, assuming that he survives a floor vote, and then we have the lawsuit! What's that you ask? Lawsuit? Why, yes! The lawsuit! It was filed in federal court in Philadelphia Thursday, August 21, 2008, (that's yesterday) by a prominent Democrat, who just happens to be a Hillary Clinton supporter. The lawsuit alleges that Obama has not proved he is really a US citizen, and therefore could possibly be ineligible to run for the highest office in the country. (READ MORE)
Dr. iRack: Mark Your Calendars: June 2009 in Iraq (Updated) - Reports suggest that U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have agreed on a text for a SOFA (now called a "Memorandum of Understanding," or MOU), which will be attached to a broader Strategic Framework Agreement. The agreement still has to get approved by Maliki and then the Iraqi parliament, so it's a long way from being finalized--and maybe it won't happen at all. But when reading the leaked details of the agreement, Dr. iRack took note of a key date: June 2009 Apparently, the SOFA/MOU will call for U.S. combat forces to be out of Iraqi cities by the end of June 2009. Dr. iRack does not think this means that U.S. forces will actually be completely out of Iraqi cities by that date. Rather, he suspects it means that U.S. combat outposts and joint security stations will be handed over to Iraqi security forces by that date, at which point U.S. forces will go back to "commuting to work" from outlying FOBs. (READ MORE)
Harmless Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Service & Intellectual Elites - I’ve often wondered if our society is heading for a break between those who believe themselves to be the intellectual elite and those who serve in the military. I’ve even tried to convince my talented daughter to write a novel about a “future America” where there is a military caste, where only members of military families are permitted to join, which is in conflict with an elite caste, responsible for political decisions the military caste must enforce. I think it would be an interesting novel . . . but I digress (again). There is some basis for my speculation. There are very few members of either Congress or the Senate that have served in the military, and very few of their children have volunteered. Some universities do not permit ROTC units on their campuses, and deny ROTC instructors faculty status. (READ MORE)
Information Dissemination: Russia - Georgia Analysis We Can Support - Mark Safranski, also known as Zenpundit, has an article out on Pajamas Media regarding the Russian - Georgian conflict called Lets Not Rush Into Cold War II. Mark nails every point perfectly, scores on every possession, and generally educates at a level even the politicos should be able to understand. “From administration to administration, we zigzag with the needs of the moment in our dealings with Russia without a clear vision of what America’s vital interests in the former Soviet states actually are. Georgia is a textbook case. While America has a legitimate concern in encouraging former Soviet states to develop into market democracies, there is no intrinsic economic or strategic American vital interest in Georgia per se and even less in South Ossetia. Georgia is our ally for only two reasons: Tblisi was enthusiastic to send troops to help in Iraq in return for military aid and it occupies a strategic location for oil and gas pipelines that will meet future European energy needs.” (READ MORE)
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