Informed Speculation

…and the impact has hardly lessened, at least for me.  Every 9/11, I put aside politics for a day, and I remember.  Sure, I remember the awful world-changing impact of those airplanes (how could anyone forget?), but I also remember the outpouring of human decency, the courage, the bravery, and the pride that we all [...]

Well, I’ll just be…the NY Times has run an editorial on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan without going into an anti-Bush or anti-Iraq War rant.  Pigs are flying, my friends, pigs are flying…

So says the Washington Post editorial board regarding Obama’s apparent non-change of heart on Iraq: BARACK OBAMA yesterday accused President Bush and Sen. John McCain of rigidity on Iraq: “They said we couldn’t leave when violence was up, they say we can’t leave when violence is down.” Mr. Obama then confirmed his own foolish consistency. [...]

For a war supporter, I suppose my silence on the renewed violence in Iraq has been deafening, but not for the reasons you might think.  I’m not afraid to admit that my heart sank at the news that al-Sadr’s truce might be off, and God knows we’ve all had enough killing.  I’ve kept my silence [...]

We’re going to have to deal with the prospect of a possible Barack Obama presidency sooner or later.  We’ll have plenty of opportunity to dwell on the historic nature of his candidacy, as well as the ‘rock star’ aspects of the Obama juggernaut.  I want to focus on policy for the moment, though, particularly on [...]

…as Texas has a 28-10 halftime lead over Arizona State in a Holiday Bowl that the Texas  coaches have taken very seriously indeed.  Horrible news today, though, with the murder of Benazir Bhutto.  I actually got a little teary-eyed when I saw the headline, as this served as a blunt reminder of just how brutal [...]

More hypocrisy from Congressional Democrats: In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a [...]

Good piece from David Sanger in this morning’s NY Times on the events that led up to the changed NIE on Iran’s nuclear ambitions: American intelligence agencies reversed their view about the status of Iran’s nuclear weapons program after they obtained notes last summer from the deliberations of Iranian military officials involved in the weapons [...]

As the impact of the Iran NIE sinks in, it is apparent that some folks are so set on absolving Iran that they ignore the ‘high certainty’ of the estimate that Iran DID, in fact, have a nuclear weapons program until 2003, and the ‘high certainty’ that they could start it back up pretty much [...]

Perhaps still stinging from his fervent declarations in the war’s beginning that it was only a matter of time until the WMDs were found, Christopher Hitchens now plays the skeptic to news of a turning point in Iraq – although certainly a hopeful skeptic, at that: A few weeks ago, in Britain’s Prospect magazine, the [...]

It’s been quite clear for quite some time that Musharraf is not the type to go quietly into that good night.  The administration has reacted to today’s declaration of a state of emergency: The Bush administration said Saturday it was deeply disturbed by the state of emergency in Pakistan and urged a swift return to [...]

Looks like SOMEBODY’s got a guilty conscience: New commercial satellite photos show that a Syrian site believed to have been attacked by Israel last month no longer bears any obvious traces of what some analysts said appeared to have been a partly built nuclear reactor. Two photos, taken Wednesday from space by rival companies, show [...]

I don’t have much patience for ‘chickenhawk’ arguments – it is absurd on the face of it to say that only those who serve in the military can have an opinion on military matters.  I don’t need to shoot heroin to know it’s probably not a good idea.  One small kernel of truth in the [...]

Hmmm…even I haven’t been THIS optimistic about the war: Should we declare victory over al Qaeda in the battle of Iraq? The very question would have seemed proof of dementia only a few months ago, yet now some highly respected military officers, including the commander of Special Forces in Iraq, Gen. Stanley McCrystal, reportedly feel [...]

I’ve had an undisguised admiration for the Washington Post editorial board for quite some time now.  There is no doubt that the Post leans left, as does the NY Times, but unlike the Times, the Post is not so blinded by partisanship that it cannot see any good news that doesn’t fit its political agenda.  [...]

I think we can finally lay this one to rest.  The NY Times becomes the latest media outlet to add to what by now appears to be all but official: Syria was seeking a nuclear program, backed by North Korea. Israel’s air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and [...]

Why is further confirmation from ABC News that the Israeli air strike on Syria was against a nuclear facility good news?  First, the excerpt: The September Israeli airstrike on a suspected nuclear site in Syria had been in the works for months, ABC News has learned, and was delayed only at the strong urging of [...]

This is the third posting I’ve done on the Israeli raid on Syria, and given my reduced blogging load, that’s quite a bit, but the story has the potential to be the biggest story of the year. I use the phrase ‘has the potential’ with all deliberateness, because it’s easy to go overboard on these [...]

A number of new articles have shed light on Israel’s air raid on Syria on September 6th, and it is becoming more and more probable that it was related to nuclear trade between Syria and North Korea: Israel’s decision to attack Syria on Sept. 6, bombing a suspected nuclear site set up in apparent collaboration [...]

I sure hope not – nothing bothers me more than the ability of conspiracy theorists (exhibit A: 9/11 ‘Truthers’) to grab hold of every little scrap that suits their premises, and ignore the mountains of evidence that don’t – but in this case, there is precious little evidence either way.  I’m talking about that mysterious [...]