Category: long story short

Today, US Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli put “an American face” on the most fateful decision shaping the future of Iraq. Per this AP story… Commander: Fight with Al-Sadr Not Over AP, 9/2/04 “The fight with renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is not over and the U.S. military must retake his stronghold in Baghdad’s Sadr City…

The worst violence in Iraq is consistently touched off in places where there is contact between the opposing forces. If UN peacekeepers (perhaps recruited from predominately Christian nations) could just contain the Americans in unpopulated areas, violence could be curtailed. Another possibility would be to allow US troops into the cities and evacuate the Iraqis.…

The DEA is scrambling to explain reports that a number of dogs in its employ have been found sniffing drugs.

Democrat ‘Ashamed’ He Helped Bush, AP, 8/29/04 “Bush…has said he received no special treatment and did not seek help to be admitted to the Guard….” “White House spokesman Scott McClellan said….’This was fully covered and addressed five years ago. It is nothing new.’ “Five years ago, Barnes’s lawyer issued a statement saying Barnes had been…

[I sent this as a Letter to the Editor of the NYT. today] You said, accurately, in your editorial, “The Road to Confrontation in Najaf,” 8/21/04… “[This] showdown began…because of serious lapses in the American military command structure in Iraq….when a newly arrived Marine Expeditionary Unit in Najaf started skirmishing with Moktada al-Sadr’s Shiite militia…

Following up on Boris Khadinov’s note about the pro-Bush ad that takes advantage of the Olympics: various blogs are now repeating a quote from the German magazine Der Spiegel (here translated by me). An unnamed IOC member says that because Bush won’t stop running the ad, “New York’s chances to host [the Olympics in 2012]…