From the Washington Post:

The former U.S. official who governed Iraq after the invasion said yesterday that the United States made two major mistakes: not deploying enough troops in Iraq and then not containing the violence and looting immediately after the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

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"We paid a big price for not stopping [the looting] because it ( Read more... )

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Can you imagine George Bush working this hard at anything? No wonder Kerry won:

Ever the serious student, Kerry staged four mock debates at night in recent weeks, videotaping his performances and timing himself with a stopwatch. He carried a set of huge briefing books with him, methodically studying the material.

In contrast:

The president's ( Read more... )

The reaction to Bush's debate performance among his staunchest supporters has been negative beyond my wildest fantasies. When the debate first ended, I was fairly certain that Kerry had come out ahead. But after a day of reading every reaction I could find from all over the political spectrum, I'm starting to think we may have witnessed a turning ( Read more... )

George Bush's hometown newspaper, The Lone Star Iconoclast, has written a scathing review of the Bush Administration's first-term performance. Some of it is a little nutty. Accusing the President of "rais[ing] oil prices by 50 percent" demonstrates a bit of a misunderstanding about what our executive branch is and is not capable of. But at other ( Read more... )

I received the following e-mail in response to the debate:

It strikes me that the decision about electing the leader of the strongest country in the world should include some consideration of the motivations of legitimately strong people or strong companies or strong nations and how they really act.  Great strength creates great self confidence, ( Read more... )

Quick, quick... I have to write while I'm still pure... before I'm exposed to all of the spin and punditry.

Whatever else you may say about each of the candidates' performances, this much is clear: we face a stark choice. I expected a very sterile affair, more like two scripted press conferences happening simultaneously than an exchange of ideas. ( Read more... )

There has been a lot of debate recently about whether there will, in fact, be elections in Iraq this coming January. Such debate is reasonable given the apparent growth in the amount of Iraq countryside that neither the U.S. nor the Iraqi goverment exercise any control over. What is strange, however, is that with 3 months to go before this possible ( Read more... )

You can agree or disagree with the positions that Kerry took in the speech that he gave yesterday about the situation in Iraq. You can believe that those positions are inconsistent with positions that Kerry took earlier. But you cannot deny that people are talking about Iraq this morning, and unlike everything else about this campaign, Iraq would ( Read more... )

One of my many fans writes in:

Thought of the day: Sadaam will never see trial under this administration. In Italy (which has had something like 150 governments since the war ended), there is an old saying, "At least the trains ran on time." The sentiment is fairly simple: democtratic liberties are nice, but only if you have the conditions under ( Read more... )