Informed Speculation

I’m going to focus on three, and leave it up to you to read the rest.  The three I’m highlighting deal with the increasingly troubling idea that we will ask for Iran and Syria’s help in dealing with Iraq: (8) Any proposal to ask Iran and Syria to help is a sign of defeat. Does [...]

Christopher Hitchens is so prolific that not all of his work can rank as highly as that of a writer more prone to distance between his pieces, but when he’s on, he’s as good as it gets, and his most recent column at Slate is a keeper: The fate of those who criticize the Syrian [...]

Give the man credit for this much – he brings people of all races, ages, and nationalities together in one crucial area: their intense dislike of John Kerry. Democratic Sen. John Kerry, mulling a second bid for the U.S. presidency, finished dead last in a poll released on Monday on the likability of 20 top American [...]

The question mark is intentional, because one of these items doesn’t fit: Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden, who will be the next chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, set down benchmarks on Monday that he said should be addressed by an influential panel considering the United States’ alternatives in Iraq. Biden of Delaware issued a [...]

It’s official: Glenn Greenwald’s mail is now addressed c/o The Cocoon.  In the world according to Greenwald, no one who doesn’t share his view on every issue can possibly have any integrity, so if there is opposition to placing ethically compromised politicians (i.e., criminals) in positions of great importance, there must be a serious conspiracy [...]

As expected, the Lebanese cabinet approved the Hariri tribunal; and, as expected, the President and Speaker of the Parliament will continue to try to derail it for their Syrian masters: The Cabinet sent to the president Monday a draft accord on a tribunal to try the alleged killers of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, taking another [...]

David Sanger of the New York Times confirms what everyone already knows: the Iraq Study Group will recommend direct talks with Syria and Iran. A draft report on strategies for Iraq, which will be debated here by a bipartisan commission beginning Monday, urges an aggressive regional diplomatic initiative that includes direct talks with Iran and [...]

Richard Holbrooke in the Washington Post: While the United States is otherwise preoccupied, this small former Soviet republic has become the stage for a blatant effort at regime change, Russian-style. Vladimir Putin is going all out to undermine and get rid of Georgia’s young, pro-American, pro-democracy president, Mikheil Saakashvili. Putin is assuming that the United [...]

As astonishing as it may seem, Jonathan Chait doesn’t have his tongue in cheek when he makes the following statement: THE DEBATE about Iraq has moved past the question of whether it was a mistake (everybody knows it was) to the more depressing question of whether it is possible to avert total disaster. Every self-respecting [...]

That’s what he said on his deathbed, though Moscow denies it, of course.  From the L.A. Times, here’s David Wise: Oleg Kalugin, for one, has no doubt. Kalugin, the former chief of KGB counterintelligence, became a highly vocal critic of the Soviet spy agency and now lives in the U.S. “This is just another confirmation of [...]

I don’t mean the author of the best book on Iraq, but the best day-to-day commenter, and I’m talking about Fareed Zakaria.  Zakaria has been, over the last year or so, the most consistently ‘on-target’ MSM figure; he recognized early on that the wheels were falling off, and he didn’t play stupid personality-driven blame games, [...]

Essential reading from the latest Newsweek, as Moqtada al-Sadr  is given a full profile: Sadr is a unique force in Iraq: a leader from the majority Shiites who has resisted American occupation from the start. He’s a populist, a nationalist and an Islamic radical rolled into one. Part of his power is simply that he’s [...]

Is the bloodshed in Iraq a sectarian conflict or a civil war? What’s in a name? Does it matter?  Edward Wong in the New York Times: Though the Bush administration continues to insist that it is not, a growing number of American and Iraqi scholars, leaders and policy analysts say the fighting in Iraq meets [...]

Brace yourself for the worst when the new Democratic congress seats itself, at least on the economic front.  Populism is on the rise, and it’s a bad idea then, now, and always.  The New York Times‘ Week in Review has a feature: FOR years, the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party, exercising a lock on [...]

How about these stats? The Rolling Stones’ A Bigger Bang tour is the ‘top-grossing tour in history’, Billboard magazine has reported. Since August 2005, the band have grossed $437m (£226m), playing 110 shows in front of 3.5 million fans. The previous recordholder? U2′s Vertigo tour, with a $377 million gross.  Thus, I can truly say [...]

As Mickey Kaus notes, the campaign against placing impeached ex-judge Alcee Hastings in the chair of the House Intelligence Committee must be bearing fruit, because Hastings is sounding desperate: Alcee Hastings has mounted his defense, and it looks like the last-ditch variety. In a “Dear Colleague” letter, Hastings writes, “I hope that my fate is [...]

To be sure, if we are forced to leave Iraq and it plunges into chaos, it will be a stain on our honor; but an even bigger stain will spread if we allow ourselves to be the conduits through which Iran and Syria spread their influence.  Consider this story from TIME: Iran is smuggling weapons [...]

If the relationship between Sadr and Maliki is not clear to you yet, read the following: Iraq’s civil war worsened Friday as Shiite and Sunni Arabs engaged in retaliatory attacks after coordinated car bombings that killed more than 200 people in a Shiite neighborhood the day before. A main Shiite political faction threatened to quit [...]

I don’t think anyone really expected them to win another national title, given the loss of Vince Young, but to finish the regular season with two straight losses, and to lose at home against the Aggies…ouch!  Tough break, and a big loss of bowl revenue, as well…ah, well, there’s always next year…

No worries, just declare it illegitimate and refuse to cooperate: Syria suggested Friday it may not cooperate with a planned international tribunal to prosecute the suspected killers of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri because Damascus was not consulted on the plan, according to a letter circulated at the U.N. Given the sequence of recent events, [...]