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Irrelevant Exuberance – Phillip Carter, Slate
In 1975, Army Col. Harry Summers went to Hanoi as chief of the U.S. delegation's negotiation team for the four-party military talks that followed the collapse of the South Vietnamese government. While there, he spent some time chatting with his North Vietnamese counterpart, Col. Tu, an old soldier who had fought against the United States and lived to tell his tale. With a tinge of bitterness about the war's outcome, Summers told Tu, "You know, you never defeated us on the battlefield." Tu replied, in a phrase that perfectly captured the American misunderstanding of the Vietnam War, "That may be so, but it is also irrelevant." Today, in Iraq, we face a similar conundrum.
The War We Need To Win – Barack Obama, Real Clear Politics
According to the National Intelligence Estimate, the threat to our homeland from al Qaeda is "persistent and evolving." Iraq is a training ground for terror, torn apart by civil war. Afghanistan is more violent than it has been since 2001. Al Qaeda has a sanctuary in Pakistan. Israel is besieged by emboldened enemies, talking openly of its destruction. Iran is now presenting the broadest strategic challenge to the United States in the Middle East in a generation. Groups affiliated with or inspired by al Qaeda operate worldwide. Six years after 9/11, we are again in the midst of a "summer of threat," with bin Ladin and many more terrorists determined to strike in the United States.
Do We Have Permission to Win in Iraq? – David Warren, Real Clear Politics
So far as I can make out -- I am not writing from Iraq, but I do make a splendid effort to follow the plot there -- the Americans are finally doing what they should have been doing all along. They are taking the battle to the Islamist enemy, or rather, enemies, both Shia and Sunni. They are enlisting the help of tribal lords and other local allies against these enemies, de-emphasizing the grand "Marshall Plan" giveaways, and re-emphasizing small, visible, unbureaucratic improvements on that local scale. They have become less timid about inspections and searches, and thus have taken bigger risks of offending people, in the knowledge that providing better security is the only thing that will get them loved. They not only have more men now in theatre, but are using more proportionally up front and fewer in the rear. They are patrolling frontiers more pro-actively, and turning no blind eyes to suspicious incursions. By using different techniques in different districts, they are also breaking the enemy's ability to camouflage.
Why the Surge Might Not be Stopped - Jim VandeHei, The Politico
Congress has essentially hit pause on the war debate until next month, when Army Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, delivers a detailed summary of progress -- or lack thereof. Almost all the Republican members have said they will withhold judgment until they review the Petraeus report.
Iraq's Two Timetables - Los Angeles Times editorial
So is the surge strategy working? Well, militarily, yes; politically, no. The administration sold the surge back in January by arguing that only by halting the escalating sectarian violence and hammering Al Qaeda could the U.S. give Iraqi leaders the calm and time to work through their political problems. But that's exactly what has not happened. The Iraqi parliament recessed Monday for a month's vacation without passing critical laws to distribute oil profits and hold local elections. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Cabinet essentially collapsed as its six Sunni ministers pulled out to protest policies of the Shiite-dominated government. Mullen bravely declared that without national reconciliation and economic growth in Iraq, "no amount of troops and no amount of time will make a difference."
Gray Lady Hedges – Ralph Peters, New York Post
What did the column in Monday's Times say? Exactly what readers of this paper have been hearing for months: Gen. Dave Petraeus has made a remarkable difference; al Qaeda's in trouble in Iraq; the performance of the Iraqi military is improving, and security gains are making a significant difference in the daily lives of Iraqis.
Vacationing in Iraq – National Review editorial
The Iraqi parliament’s decision to adjourn until September 4 gives an easy sound bite to American advocates of withdrawal from Iraq. “Why should our soldiers fight and die in 120-degree heat,” they will ask, “while Iraqi lawmakers go on vacation?” But the truth is that the parliament can, on its own, do little or nothing to resolve Iraq’s political impasse. Most of the business of governing happens outside of parliament, in negotiations among the major powerbrokers in prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s coalition government.
Poll Surprises Out-of-Touch Paper – Debra Saunders, Real Clear Politics
When a New York Times poll found that the number of Americans who think it was right for the United States to go to war in Iraq rose from 35 percent in May to percent 42 percent in mid-July, rather than promptly report the new poll findings, the paper conducted another poll. As the Times' Janet Elder wrote Sunday, the increased support for the decision to go to war was "counterintuitive" and because it "could not be easily explained, the paper went back and did another poll on the very same subject."
'With Us' and 'Against Us' - Robert Scheer, San Francisco Chronicle
Go figure: From the White House comes the news that self-styled anti-terrorism crusader President Bush wants to sell $20 billion in high-tech military equipment to Saudi Arabia, the source of most of the financing, and 15 of the 19 hijackers, for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. The justification can't be that this is yet another boondoggle for the military-industrial complex - the big winner in the war on terror - so we are told instead that the Sunni-dominated Saudi kingdom needs this weaponry to withstand a future challenge from those dastardly Shiite fellows in Iran.
Grow Up, Middle East! – Victor Davis Hanson, Real Clear Politics
Right now we should hold the Muslim world to the same standards of tolerance that we demand of ourselves -- no more apologies for things like our insensitive cartoons or excuses for their insane anger against novelists. In turn, the Middle East must grow up and accept, like the rest of the world, that there are social and cultural costs and consequences for any who wish to embrace the benefits of modernism.
Taken Hostage – London Times editorial
The killing of two South Korean hostages by the Taleban left the Afghan Government and coalition forces with few options. For the past two weeks, intermediaries have been negotiating against the clock to persuade those who captured 23 Christian aid workers to release them. Their captors, however, have insisted on the release of Taleban prisoners, a demand that the Government of President Karzai, after the humiliating release of inmates in March in exchange for the life of an Italian journalist, has said it will not meet. When the threatened killings began, after the expiry of several Taleban deadlines, it became clear that the insurgents were not to be talked out of their murderous blackmail.
A Specter is Haunting Iran – Amir Taheri, New York Post
American leftists like Michael Moore, Sean Penn and Noam Chomsky have persuaded themselves that anyone who shouts "Death to America!" is fighting for "repressed humanity." The champagne-and-caviar socialists of Paris and London, meanwhile, claim that the only Iranians who oppose the mullahs are middle-class intellectuals who often have dual Iranian-U.S. citizenship - and, thus, deserve to be tortured in Tehran as hostages.
How our Neighbors See Us - Marifeli Pérez-Stable, Miaimi Herald
Under the auspices of the Pew Research Center, the Global Attitudes Project conducts surveys in 54 countries on world affairs. Citizens in six Latin American countries -- Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela -- were interviewed in the most recent survey. A partial profile of their views follows.
Bullying Latin America - Eric Farnsworth and Gary Hufbauer, Baltimore Sun
The spirit of Teddy Roosevelt is back in Latin America, and it's not a pretty sight. Despite repeatedly warning against the pitfalls of turning away from our own hemisphere, Congress is nonetheless rapidly lining up behind an updated version of Roosevelt's credo, urging the United States to "speak loudly and carry a whip."
Stop the Stampede – Washington Post editorial
The week before a long congressional recess is a time when a lot of important legislative work finally gets done; it's also a time when a lot of big legislative mistakes get made. That is the danger now, as nervous congressional Democrats come under intense pressure from the Bush administration to ease the rules for terrorist surveillance. Those Democrats should resist the administration's demands for a hasty rewrite of a law as complicated as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act; they should certainly not accede to the administration's proposal to vest broad new power in -- of all people -- the attorney general to authorize warrantless surveillance, free of normal court supervision.
Reform FISA Now – Washington Times editorial
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) should be modernized to take into account technological changes that have occurred during the past 29 years — especially given the fact that the failure to do so will increase the likelihood that terrorists will be able to strike the United States? The issue shouldn't be a matter of partisan debate, but the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate appears determined to make it into one.
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