Obama Iraq Withdrawal: Read the Fine Print
Barack Obama built his presidential campaign around being the candidate who opposed the Iraq War from the start and therefore had the most credibility in ending the war. As the campaign went on and he got more advice from the experts, however, he began subtly hedging his promises, careful to always refer to "combat troops." Well, the other shoe has ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 27, 2009 06:44
Iraq Suicide Terrorists Kill 75
It appears that suicide bombings are back in a big way in Iraq: At least 75 people were killed and 120 injured in two explosions in Iraq on Thursday that shook a quiet residential Baghdad neighborhood and a restive city north of the capital where Iranian tourists were targeted. In the first attack, a woman wearing a suicide belt exploded herself in ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 23, 2009 11:00
Torture Worked! Foiled Los Angeles Attack! Yay Torture!
After several days of inflamed public debate following official confirmation that the United States government tortured suspected terrorists under specific authorization from the Bush administration, the inevitable pushback has begun. Several reports now suggest that these extreme interrogation techniques had the desired effect, yielding valuable intelligence that saved lives. The most interesting of these, alas, comes from CNS and is headlined ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 22, 2009 07:42
South Park Baathists
"South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker tell The Telegraph that they got a signed picture of Saddam Hussein from some Iraq Marines. During his captivity, US marines forced Saddam, who was executed in 2006, to repeatedly watch the move South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut, which shows him as gay, as well as the boyfriend of Satan. He was ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 9, 2009 07:19
6 Years of Iraq War Photos
Yesterday, as was noted here and there, was the 6th anniversary of the United States invasion of Iraq. That we're still there after so many years is remarkable -- depending on who's counting, it's the second longest war in American history -- but the number 6 isn't one we pay much attention to. We like round numbers and multiples of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 20, 2009 10:18
Iraqis Happier, More Optimistic
A new poll shows that Iraqis are decidedly happier and more optimistic than they were just a year ago but that they're still unhappy with the United States invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime and put their lives into a state of chaos. Iraqis are more upbeat about their future and less concerned about violence and insecurity, according to a poll ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 16, 2009 09:34
Iraq Combat Operations to Continue
You remember that pullout of American combat troops from Iraq? Not so fast. A U.S. military spokesman says American forces will still conduct combat operations even after they pull back to bases outside Baghdad and other cities as part of the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement. Brig. Gen. Frederick Rudesheim says the redeployment to the periphery will actually help improve security in the capital ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 15, 2009 06:59
Obama Ends Major Combat Operations in Iraq
[caption id="attachment_32336" align="alignright" width="300" caption="President Barack Obama (R) walks with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (L) from the Oval Office to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House February 27, 2009 in Washington, DC. President Obama is traveling to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to announce his plans for eventual removal of troops from Iraq. (Getty Images)"][/caption] Given ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 28, 2009 08:43
Iraq Willing To Allow Early US Troop Withdrawal
The Iraqi government has indicated that it is ready to assume security over the country in the event that U.S. troops are withdrawn prior to the 2011 date agreed to by the Bush Administration.Obama promised during the campaign to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. The new president said in his inaugural address ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 21, 2009 10:51
Ending the War in Iraq
I see that Elizabeth Bumiller, writing in the New York Times Even though the agreement with the Iraqi government calls for all American combat troops to be out of the cities by the end of June, military planners are now quietly acknowledging that many will stay behind as renamed “trainers” and “advisers” in what are effectively combat roles. In other words, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 22, 2008 09:49
Lynndie England NOT U.S. Policy
Ezra Klein applies the headline "Doing Her Job" to this infamous photo of Lyndie England. [caption id="attachment_28772" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Lynndie England with dog at Abu Ghraib"][/caption] It was not a few bad apples. It was not the chaos of war. It was official U.S. government policy. The release of the Senate Armed Services Committee's Report on Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 15, 2008 15:40
Bush Iraq Trip: Hit by Shoes, Cheered by Troops
President Bush made a surprise farewell visit to Iraq and Afghanistan, suffering the indignity of having an Iraqi journalist hurl his shoes at him but being greeted warmly by American troops. Sudarsan Raghavan and Dan Eggen for WaPo: In Iraq, Bush said the conflict "has not been easy" but was necessary for U.S. security, Iraqi stability and "world peace." He hailed a ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 15, 2008 07:55
Iraq Rebuilding Blunders
[caption id="attachment_28706" align="alignright" width="300" caption="U.S. Army military police and Iraqi police play with children in Sab al Bor, Iraq, Dec. 22, 2007. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. William Greer)"][/caption] A forthcoming government history on Iraq War reconstruction depicts an inept process marred by politics and bureaucratic infighting, NYT reports. An unpublished 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 14, 2008 07:50
The Iranian Weapons Myth
One consistent meme that has popped up during the War in Iraq is the idea that the government of Iran is actually arming Shi'ite militias so that they can fight American soliders. As it turns out, though, there's not a lot of evidence for this proposition.Last April, top George W. Bush administration officials, desperate to exploit any possible crack ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 18, 2008 01:48
Removing Combat Brigades from Iraq
Barack Obama has been President Elect for just two days and already we're reducing the number of combat brigades in Iraq: Gen. David H. Petraeus has decided to reduce the number of U.S. combat brigades in Iraq from 15 to 14 about six weeks earlier than planned, as a result of dramatically lower violence there, Pentagon officials said yesterday. "The hope is ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 6, 2008 11:24
