Tag Archives: Iraq

Giving Thanks

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  NOV 27

“Thank you for your service.”

It is an expression that rolls off the tongue. Thanking someone in uniform as they trek through an airport or walk down a sidewalk has become commonplace.

The expression can take many different forms, from a simple ‘thanks’ and maybe a handshake to a fireworks popping flyover, flag-waving spectacle at a professional football game.

It is certainly most often a gesture made in hopes of lifting the spirit of a service member, a tiny step forward to express appreciation for what a soldier has done for the country, whatever that might be, from suffering the horrors of warfare to shuffling papers at the Pentagon.

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Tom Ridge

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

The official portrait of the first Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security was unveiled yesterday at the Department headquarters on Nebraska Avenue, in Washington, DC. Tom Ridge left that post in 2005 and it is now 2013 but that is, as we say here, close enough for government work.

DHS was conceived out of the emotional, as well as the physical rubble of the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Ridge was the Governor of Pennsylvania at the time and went to Shanksville, the site of the wreckage of Flight 93. As Mayors and Governors and Presidents do, he gave solace to the people of his state and to the first responders responsible for investigating and cleaning up the site.

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Bush Revisited

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Thousands of Republicans are on their way to Dallas, Texas to commemorate and celebrate 8 consequential years at the turn of the 21st century.

President Bush is opening his Presidential library, which runs counter to his self-image as a simple, country bumpkin.

Bush was always smarter than he let on in his public image, which I have always thought was a big mistake on his part. People don’t want a simple, country bumpkin as their President. Well, I should rephrase that. Many people don’t want a simple, country bumpkin as their President, me included. Continue reading →

Hindsight

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Ten years.

It has been a decade since America invaded Iraq. Historians will have a field day analyzing every aspect of this war, from beginning to end, and at every point in between.

The war was a mistake, a giant mistake. It cost more than 8 trillion dollars and while it deposed an evil and brutal dictator, it did so with an unnecessarily high cost in blood and treasure. Continue reading →

Hagel Testimony = Fail

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

I subscribe to the general theory that a President, Republican or Democrat, should be able to have the people running his Departments, Commissions, and Agencies that he wants.

Unless there is some overriding disqualifying reason to reject him or her, the Senate should abide by the terms of Article II, Section 2 that says the President, “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint … Officers of the United States.”

The nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense is an excellent case in point.

I may not agree with Hagel on the 3 I’s – Iran, Iraq, and Israel – but we don’t generally allow Secretaries of Defense to make foreign policy. Nor, for that matter, do Secretaries of State make foreign policy. Continue reading →

Drill, Don’t Drill, Drill

War In Lybia: What’s In A Name

By Tony Blankley

Reprinted from The Washington Times

Amidst all the confusion over our new little war in Libya , one thing is clear: Notwithstanding the bravery and professionalism of our troops in naming it Operation Odyssey Dawn, the Pentagon has invoked a haunting specter. The war’s namesake  Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey”  is the tale of the hero, Odysseus, taking 10 years to get home from the Trojan War  which itself took 10 years to fight.

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Boundaries Part of Mideast Conflict

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from mullings.com

There is growing discussion over the nature of country borders in the roiling region of Northern Africa and the Middle East .

SIDEBAR

We should just call the region “NAME” to save typing.

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Egypt: Serious Troubles for All

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from mullings.com

 On December 17, 2010 a 26 year-old fruit vendor named Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest at his treatment by the local authorities in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid.

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Dems on the Run

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from townhall.com and Mullings

While everything else has been going on, two senior Democratic Members of Congress, Maxine Waters (DEMOCRAT-Calif) and Charles Rangel (DEMOCRAT- New York ) have been, essentially, indicted by the House Ethics Committee for violation of House rules.

Both of those findings came well in advance of the House resuming its back-breaking schedule of a two-week work period between the August-September recess and the October-November pre-election recess.

When the Ethics Committee reported its findings, the expectation was that both Waters and Rangel would have their hearings/trials prior to the pre-election break.

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Afghanistan: War and Politics

 

BY TONY BLANKLEY

Reprinted from Townhall.com

With the end of combat in Operation Enduring Freedom presidentially certified, all eyes rivet toward Afghanistan. This is the fight President Obama, when campaigning for office, called our “war of necessity.” This is the theater of conflict where Obama, when debating Sen. McCain barely two years ago, promised us victory ending with the killing or capture of Osama bin Laden. Ironically, Afghanistan may also be the only war in American history with a presidential expiration date.

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