Tag: Iraq War

Vice President Pence Thanks Millennial Military

Clifford A. Brown
Clifford A. Brown
66
 
Jordan 2019, AZANG and Army Reserve TOA

Photo by Sgt. 1st Class SHAIYLA HAKEEM Area Support Group Jordan, July 2019

This weekend, Candice Owens uploaded her latest podcast, an interview with Vice President Mike Pence. As he brought the interview to a close, he made a comment that prompted reflection. Vice President Pence grounded his optimism about our nation’s future in the fact of 5.5 million young people have signed up for military service, since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Indeed, the latest cohort of recruits was born after that date, and for at least the past four years, recruits have had no living, personal, memory of that day.

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Honoring a Fallen Hero: Staff Sergeant Travis Atkins

Clifford A. Brown
Clifford A. Brown
710
 

On Wednesday, 27 March 2019, President Trump honored Staff Sergeant Travis Atkins‘ supreme sacrifice for our country. He presented the Medal of Honor, in the name of the Congress, to Staff Sgt. Atkins’ son, Trevor. This family’s members present in the room, embodied a long tradition of answering the nation’s call to arms. As is customary, previous Medal of Honor recipients were present to honor their latest member.

The president gave a heartfelt address, telling Sergeant Atkins‘ story from childhood to the moment he wrapped his arms around a suicide-bomb-vest wearing enemy, throwing himself on top of the bomber, saving his three squad members in 2007. These men all stood in testimony to Sergeant Atkins, as did another 50 members of the 10th Mountain Division.

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Unexpected Gift on the Ides of March?

Clifford A. Brown
Clifford A. Brown
69
 

What unexpected gifts could we celebrate on the Ides of March? The day is best known for the assassination of Julius Caesar in the Roman Senate by other Roman leaders. One of the leaders, Brutus, commemorated the assassination two years later with a coin remembering the Ides of March with two daggers and a common cap, a pileus.

The cap had become associated with the emancipation of slaves. It is still featured in some images of Lady Liberty. So, we could celebrate the unexpected gift of liberty, liberty won by literally striking down the tyrant. However, none of the conspirators covered themselves in glory as republican heroes, let along Heroes of the Roman Republic.

We cannot blame them, really. After all, the Roman Republic had bled out long before the blood of Caesar flowed over its ground. The Republic had committed slow suicide by a thousand self-cuts. Its institutions had become so corrupt and dysfunctional that they invited Julius Caesar to be dictator for life. In the years following his assassination, there was no uprising to restore the Republic. The Senate was contemptuous and contemptible in its corruption. The Roman people ended up being best served by the first emperor, Caesar Augustus, the adopted son and legal heir of Julius Caesar.

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Freesmith
Freesmith
1012
 

What is most appalling about the anonymous op-ed in the New York Times is how its appearance indicts our Ruling Class and the courtiers and sycophants who swarm the Imperial City to cater to that class’s whims and its premises. Consider that no one in the Bush 43 administration penned such a letter about how […]
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ILANA MERCER
ILANA MERCER
4322
 

Periodically, America experiences episodes of mass, hysterical contagion. What is “hysterical contagion”? A sociologist explains it as the spread of symptoms of an illness among a group, absent any physiological disease. It provides a way of coping with a situation that cannot be handled with the usual coping mechanism. Preview Open
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Addiction Is A Choice
Addiction Is A Choice
148
 

Kimberly Strassel of the Wall Street Journal has a dynamite piece entitled, “Hillary’s Other Server Scandal.” Strassel hints that, while the revelation of state secrets, etc. is a very serious matter, it is the intersection of her duties at State and the funding of The Clinton Foundation that is the most interesting – and potentially damaging…I am […]
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The Art of the Expendable

Ball Diamond Ball
Ball Diamond Ball
4931
 
640px-thumbnail

By U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Brian L. Wickliffe.

Tommy De Seno has written a magnificent post laying out the justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He says that invading Iraq was the right thing and that we would do it again today, and I agree with him — vehemently. This is because he insists upon setting the action in its proper historical context. I also feel that that experience lays out a firm case for never attempting a whole-enchilada approach like that again. Given the facts then in existence — this is stronger than “what we knew at the time” — it was objectively right, for the reasons identified. But that was then, and this is now, and we are being fundamentally transformed.

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Invading Iraq Was Necessary and We Would Do It Again

Tommy De Seno
Tommy De Seno
4827
 

The revisionist history about why we invaded Iraq is on such rampant rise that Republican candidates, even men named Bush, have amnesia about it. Donald Trump has gone the full Code Pink and blamed George Bush for both 9/11 and wrongly invading Iraq. Good grief.

Jeb Bush was recently asked, assuming he knew in 2003 what he knows now, would he still support invading Iraq? He said no, which is the wrong answer.

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The Costs of Righteousness

Tom Meyer, Common Citizen
Tom Meyer, Common Citizen
189
 

“London Anti Iraq War march, 15Feb 2003” by Simon Rutherford via Commons.

The Iraq War is one of those world events in which no one comes off great. The American people chose a government who almost completely botched the intelligence process and who then tried to rebuild a country before winning the war. After commendably getting things back on foot, we promptly elected a new government that fulfilled its promise to leave, consequences be dammed. The Iraqis, for their part, have not acquitted themselves terribly well either, with both Sunni and Shia factions showing precious little reluctance to side with devils in the interests of settling scores and looking after their own. That the Iraqis have borne the overwhelming brunt of the consequences of the war does not make them innocents.

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Titus Techera
Titus Techera
499
 

I’ve been writing about how social class has emerged in the work of the most successful contriver of popular spectacles, Marvel / Disney, who is never suspected of peddling anything but mindless fun. I am not really surprised at this development: Heroes in America tend to emerge in stories about protection–about caring for those in need […]
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Radical Thoughts About Iraq

Michael Stopa
Michael Stopa
6626
 

SaddamStatue“Knowing what you know now, would you have invaded Iraq in 2003?”

This question, posed by Fox News’ Megyn Kelly to potential presidential candidate Jeb Bush, created a stir this week when Bush first answered “Yes, of course” (I paraphrase) only to later claim that he wasn’t listening closely to the question and had mis-answered. This appears to have been an honest mistake (although a dumb one). Bush evidently was listening for the question as to whether he would have invaded Iraq if he had been in his brother’s shoes at the time. Given what we all know now, however, he absolutely would not have gone to war.

The whole kerfuffle was all just a misunderstanding. But it was instructive and depressing nevertheless.

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Calvin Coolidg
Calvin Coolidg
63
 

According to this article, old “Turd Blossom” was well aware of the barrage of chemical weapons that were discovered in Iraq. The article points out that the hot head Rick Santorum had been receiving photos and letters from soldiers verifying their existence. He brought this up to Rove and was instructed to leave it alone. […]
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Islam Relevant to Obama Administration … But Only When it Comes to Real Threats, Like Global Warming

Jim Lakely
Jim Lakely
12
 

President Obama on Wednesday night — the eve of the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks — said Islamic religious instruction is wholly irrelevant to the cause of ISIS … which stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. ISIS, I suspect, would disagree.

But that is not to say that there aren’t elements of foreign policy in which the Obama administration thinks religion — even Islam — is a key component. Secretary of State John Kerry stated on Sept. 3 that “religion matters,” and he’s made it “a mantra” in his State Department and his foreign policy stance.

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