Beautiful Photograph du Jour

THE WYRE LIGHT
By David J. Nightingale

Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

Political autopsies of the failed campaign for universal health care in the 1990s frequently focus on the activities of special interests who opposed it. Not that many people saw the infamous "Harry and Louise" ads, in which an average-looking couple sat at their dining room table worrying that the Clinton health plan would take away their choice of doctor. But the ads came to symbolize the misleading, and expensive, lobbying campaign waged by small insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, and other conservative groups. Perhaps no less important, it gave the opposition to universal coverage a visible and sympathetic face (or, to be more accurate, set of faces).

But it wasn't just the lobbying against the Clinton health care plan that killed it; it was also the lack of lobbying for it. Proponents of reform had hoped that like-minded interest groups would push back against the anti-reform lobbies. But the unions, famously, sat out most of the health care debate because they had spent so much time and money fighting the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993. The AARP, meanwhile, had to hold its fire because leaks about possible Medicare cuts had spooked seniors.

This time around, progressives seem determined not to make the same mistake.

-- JONATHAN COHN

There is no question that America's health-care system is in crisis and that extends to all 50 states. But if you want to see where U.S. hospitals may find themselves sooner or later, consider the number of hospitals in New Jersey that have closed or are on life support and how Democratic politicians have put themselves in a straightjacket that is exacerbating this perilous situation.

-- ME

The Commonwealth Fund estimates that about 14 percent of the population was underinsured in 2007. That sounds about right, and it's a useful reminder that insurance isn't binary, wherein you have it or you don't. Rather, it exists on a continuum, with some folks being totally insured, some folks being half insured and half uninsured, some folks being totally uninsured but having access to emergency rooms, and so forth.

This is how American rationing actually manifests. Canada might have waiting times for non-essential treatments, but we have cost barriers to all manner of treatments. Some can't afford the care, and so they go into debt, or have to sell their home. Others can't afford the care, and so they never get it. We count that waiting time as zero rather than infinity, but that's just a bad faith numbers trick meant to make us feel better.

-- EZRA KLEIN

Some health insurer stocks fell sharply Thursday after Goldman Sachs downgraded Aetna and Health Net from neutral to "sell," stoking broader investor concern about how much and how soon profit margins will shrink in the industry's current downturn.

Health Net shares fell 12 percent in a rising market and Aetna slid 6.7 percent after Goldman Sachs analyst Matthew Borsch issued a note to clients headlined "Expecting more casualties from the underwriting cycle." The cyclical industry is deep in price competition while still dealing with rising medical costs — a recipe for a profit squeeze. Many companies have already had to lower their earnings forecasts for 2008 at least once, but Hartford-based Aetna has not done that this year.

Borsch said Aetna "cannot remain immune from the [profit] margin pressure impacting other carriers in the price-sensitive commercial risk business" — the regular fully insured health plan business.

Competition among insurers could help control the size of premium increases on employers' health plans. But workers are still likely to see their own premiums go up or their benefits go down — or both.

-- DIANE LEVICK

Sixty years ago, British health minister Aneurin Bevan officially inaugurated the National Health Service. Entirely free to patients and financed through taxes, the NHS was the first system of its kind – and its overnight success spurred similar reforms around the world. In Canada, these reforms started in the 1950s and culminated in the Canada Health Act, our own guarantee of health care based on need rather than ability to pay.

The British were ahead of us then and they are ahead of us now. In the past 10 years, the NHS has undergone a variety of reforms designed to improve the quality of health care and reduce waiting lists. Not all of these modifications have been successful, and some have been “rubbished” before the wrapping paper could be torn off. Yet, there is a growing sense that the British are doing many things right.

On the 60th anniversary of the NHS, there are a number of lessons Canada can learn from the British experience.

-- IRFAN DHALLA

Happy Independence Day 2008

WATCHING FIREWORKS
Coney Island, New York (1962)
By Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos

(Updated) Why Are Right-of-Center Bloggers So Silent On Torture?

As you know if you are a reader of this or any number of other blogs, The New York Times broke a biggie yesterday in reporting that the Pentagon knowingly employed torture techniques that the Communist Chinese used on U.S. airmen during the Korean War to extract false confessions from them.

But if your diet is heavy with right-of-center blogs you probably wouldn't have read a peep about this latest revelation regarding one of the darkest chapters in the history of a country that will be celebrating its 232nd birthday tomorrow. That is the embrace of torture at the highest levels of the Bush administration and its subsequent efforts to cover up something it knew to be wrong and then to justify it through legal mumbo jumbo.

When I asked Ed Morrissey why no one at Hot Air had seen fit to mention this story amidst the high-fiving over Rush Limbaugh's $400 million payday and his own stop-the-presses story saying that the good burghers of Denver were snubbing the National Anthem in the run up to the Democratic National Convention, he replied that I was impugning his manhood, although shortly thereafter he did put up a post acknowledging the story while parsing it to a farethewell.

I found Ed's "manhood" response to be perplexing coming from someone who did some pretty damned smart writing when he was still on the bridge of the late lamented Captain's Quarters, but then the entire subject of torture seems to flummox he and many other right-leaning pundits whose views on other topics of the day are unambiguous.

Ed did not address the question of torture head on in his post on the Times story, and apparently the closest that he came to doing so was in a CQ post last December on whether waterboarding was an appropriate tool for the American intelligence kitbag. He seemed to think it was, but he was more concerned that Congress (you know, those damned Demoquacks) would screw things up.

Ed apparently has not fallen for the typical knee-jerk response that torture has thwarted acts of terrorism and saved thousands of American lives. At least I don't think he has, which is fortunate because that view is unsupportable.

It is instructive that the right-wing trolls who jump in my spit whenever I blog about the Iraq war, patriotism, public service and fluoridating public water systems, let alone that guy with the foreign-sounding middle name, are struck deaf and dumb when the subject is torture.

Mind you, I don't think that Ed or Michelle or Rush will be using the Bill of Rights to wipe mustard off their self-satisfied kissers at Independence Day picnics after they shoot a few illegal alien silhouettes down at the gun club.

But you have to wonder if they believe that the images of Jesus being tortured on the stained glass windows at their houses of worship are merely really old versions of Tickle Me Elmo since there are not even wee expressions of concern from them over their government adopting the most insidious of interrogation techniques to ostensibly protect a country whose Constitution prohibits them.

For a crowd that spends so much time questioning the patriotic bona fides of folks on the other side of the political spectrum, I suggest that it is time for them to look in the mirror and question their own patriotism if they continue to support, even tacitly through their silence, the Bush torture regime.

Illustration by Matt Mahurin for The Washington Independent

Alas, There's Nary A Cherry

The search for George Washington's boyhood home is over.

Remains excavated in the last three years were those of the long-sought dwelling on the Ferry Farm overlooking Rappahannock River in Virginia about 50 miles from the city that bears the first president's name.

Legend has it that young George threw a stone or coin across the river to Fredericksburg, but the archaeologists who made the discovery said there was not a single cherry tree anywhere in sight, not even a stump, further discrediting the apocryphal tale that the boy owned up to whacking his father’s prized specimen.

More here.

Image by Mesick, Cohen, Wilson Baker Architects

Cartoon du Jour

TONY AUTH/THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

The Trojan Horse Has Jumped The Shark

THE $400 MILLION MAN

Photograph by Nigel Parry for The New York Times

Beautiful Photograph du Jour

ACCESS TO LIFE/MALI
By Paolo Pellegrin/Mangum Photos

Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

It was [Ronald] Reagan who not only single-handedly won the Cold War and toppled the Berlin Wall but also caused the greatest economic turnaround in American history, and that's not all. It was Reagan who looked Iran in the eye and caused them to give up our hostages in a matter of minutes, who taught us that "deficits don't matter" and was steadfast about never increasing taxes, who never compromised, who reduced federal spending and ended big government -- as so many political candidates have told us. He was the most popular president in modern American history -- and if only he were still in the White House today, he would have dealt sternly with illegal immigrants and appointed hard-line conservatives to the Supreme Court -- but we know he would never negotiate with terrorists, "cut and run" from a difficult military situation, or talk to our enemies.

As Reagan himself said (attempting to quote John Adams) in 1988, "facts are stubborn things." OK, actually when he said it, it came out initially as "facts are stupid things." The irony is that nearly 20 years after Reagan left office, neither is true -- facts are largely irrelevant, especially as we create these false idols of our 40th president. There is a Ronald Reagan myth in this country, and it is already causing great harm to our politics, and will do even more damage if we don't tackle it head-on.

-- WILL BUNCH

When President Bush announced his faith-based initiatives program, I was completely against it. Now, Barack Obama wants to expand it.

-- MICHAEL D.

Between the 1993 car bombing of the WTC and 9/11, there was no significant Islamofascist attack on U.S. soil. If Bush deserves credit for the absence of attacks during the last 7 years, doesn’t Clinton deserve credit for the absence of attacks up to 9/11? Conversely, if we think Clinton deserves no credit because other factors can be cited to explain the hiatus under his administration, would we not likewise deny Bush credit?

-- PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE

[Wesley] Clark is right that getting shot down doesn't qualify one to be commander in chief. But it is relevant to wonder with whom one would rather share a foxhole.

-- KATHLEEN PARKER

Call it the Potomac shuffle, the traditional election-year dance in which a candidate who has earlier moved left or right to win over the party faithful in a primary campaign promptly slides back to the centre to appeal to the rest of the country. Barack Obama, quite a mover on the dancefloor, has spent the month since he beat Hillary Clinton to the Democratic nomination giving a demonstration of this time-honoured piece of Washington choreography - and at an unusually high tempo, too.

-- JONATHAN FREEDLAND

Ever so briefly, Senator John McCain delivered a back-handed compliment to Senator Barack Obama here today for Mr. Obama’s disagreement last week with a Supreme Court decision that ruled out the death penalty for child rape. But then Mr. McCain got to the point and darkly warned that similar decisions might be forthcoming if Mr. Obama wins the White House.

-- ELISABETH BUMILLER

People would rather barbecue burgers with Barack Obama than with John McCain.

While many are still deciding who should be president, by 52 percent to 45 percent they would prefer having Obama than McCain to their summer cookout, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll.

Men are about evenly divided between the two while women prefer Obama by 11 percentage points. Whites prefer McCain, minorities Obama. And Obama is a more popular guest with younger voters while McCain does best with the oldest.

-- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Giving Something Back To The U.S.

The concept of national service is for me a no-brainer because it is a great way to give something back to the U.S. and even our erstwhile friends overseas while receiving valuable training and experience in return. I suppose the very fact that it makes such sense is why we haven't heard much about it during a presidency that has made as its centerpiece a war that has bankrupted the national treasury and for which it has asked no one to sacrifice.

The first and subsequent times I heard Barack Obama on the stump this year he spoke at length about national service being a centerpiece of his presidency, and while he remains short on specifics, there is much to like in his plan, which he will roll out in a speech later today:

* Encourage national service to address the great challenges of our time, including combating climate change, extending health care, improving our schools and strengthening America overseas.

* Expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots and double the size of the Peace Corps.

* Integrate service learning into schools and universities to enable students to graduate college with as many as 17 weeks of service experience under their belts.

* Provide new service opportunities for working Americans and retirees.

* Expand service initiatives that engage disadvantaged young people and advance their education.

* Expand the capacity of nonprofit organizations to innovate and expand successful programs.

* Enable more Americans to serve in the armed forces.

The devil, as they say, is in the details, but Obama at least has some real-world experience as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side and stint heading Project Vote, which his campaign says helped register 150,000 new African American voters in Chicago.

'What I Tell You Is Three Times True' & Other News On The Bush Terror Regime

The Snark and The Mastermind

The more we learn about the Bush torture regime, the more apparent it becomes that there is an interconnectivity between what once seemed random acts and events: False confessions are coerced from tortured detainees using Chinese Communist techniques perfected on U.S. fliers during the Korean War. Ethnic Muslims considered by the Chinese to be enemies of the state are held indefinitely by the U.S. and worked over at the request of Beijing's interrogators. And so on and so forth.

But first a little . . . er, light comedy:

It is safe to say that the wheels have come all the way off the Bush administration's legal wagon regarding the justification for indefinite detentions of alleged terrorist suspects when a three-judge appeals court panel with one of the most conservative judges in the land resorts to quoting Lewis Carroll.

In ruling that accusations against Huzaifa Parhat, an ethnic Uighur from a Muslim region of western China held for over six years were based on unverifiable claims, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia compared those claims to the absurd declaration of a character in Carroll's poem "The Hunting of the Snark:

"I have said it thrice: What I tell you is three times true."

More here.

THIS ONE'S GONNA BE INTERESTING

The Pentagon this week filed death penalty charges against Abd al Rahim Nashiri, whom it says masterminded the Al Qaeda-led suicide bombing of the USS Cole off Aden, Yemen, in 2000 that killed 17 sailors and wounded 47 other people.

If the 43-year-old Saudi rings a bell with those of you keeping a torture regime scorecard, it is because he is one of three people whom the CIA acknowledges waterboarding, while Nashiri has told officers at Guantánamo Bay that he concocted a confession to appease his torturers.

The charge sheet against Nashiri seeks to try him through the military commission system at the Navy base that the Supreme Court ruled against last month and has produced paroxysms of horror among habeas loathing right wingers.

Air Force Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann, who announced the charges, credited them to the work of "a multitude of government agencies," including the Defense and Justice departments, and responded to a reporter's question about the waterboarding allegation by saying that it would be up to a military judge at trial to decide whether to accept evidence obtained in that manner.

"That's the beauty of the system," Hartmann said.

Yes indeedy.

More here.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE

Our pals the Chinese have played a largely unacknowledged role in the torture regime.

It was recently revealed that military personnel at Guantánamo allegedly "softened up" detainees at the request of Chinese intelligence officials who had come to interrogate the men, who include Uighurs, while it has now been learned that military trainers based an entire 2002 interrogation class on a chart outlining torture techniques copied verbatim from an Air Force study of Chinese techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions from American prisoners, many of them false.

The New York Times reports that:

"The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo and by the CIA."

Some methods were used against a small number of prisoners at Guantánamo before 2005, when Congress banned the use of coercion by the military. The CIA is still authorized by President Bush to use a number of secret "alternative" interrogation methods.

More here.

QUOTABLE

CIA veteran Milt Bearden in The Washington Independent:

"Throughout this ugly drama, U.S. leaders have assured the public that the extreme interrogation measures used on detainees have thwarted acts of terrorism and saved thousands of American lives. The trouble with such claims is that professionals who know something of interrogation or intelligence don't believe them. This is not just because the old hands overwhelmingly believe that torture doesn't work -- it doesn't -- but also because they know that torture creates more terrorists and fosters more acts of terror than it could possibly neutralize."

More here.

SUPPORT FOR TORTURE INCREASES

When asked whether they would condone torture when used on terrorists in order to save lives, a large and growing minority of Americans say that they would.

That number now stands at 44 percent, according to a poll released by WorldPublicOpinion.org, a project managed by the University of Maryland. While some 53 percent think all torture should be banned, the 44 percent figure is an 8 percentage point increase since the same question was asked in 2006.

The pollsters had little explanation for the apparent rise in public tolerance for torture except to note that Americans receive a steady stream of news reports about terrorist attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan.

More here.

John McCain Jumps The Shark. Again.

I suppose that those of us who support our veterans should be grateful that President Bush and John McCain capitulated on the enhanced G.I. Bill, which will double college benefits. But it is worth recalling that both were adamantly opposed to it because of the dubious claim that better bennies would mean fewer long-term enlistments.

Bush's cave-in was understandable because of the deep bipartisan support for the measure, which was part of a defense spending bill.

But Mr. War Hero jumped the shark as he has in the past by failing to show up for the key vote on something he opposed and then acted like he had been for it all along.

'I Don't Want To Be Spanked By Mama'

From "Hillaryland at War" by Gail Sheehy in the new Vanity Fair:

"[T]he real flaw in Hillary's presidential campaign was the lack of any clear lines of authority. Her 'team of rivals,' as she thought approvingly of them, assured she would remain in total top--down control. But it is often necessary to tell a candidate what she doesn't want to hear in a cold, hard, neutral manner. With Hillary, the word among her staff was 'I don't want to be spanked by Mama.' "

Bending Over For Marriage

MORE HERE.

What's With This Ron Burkle Guy?

WHAT?

Beautiful Photograph du Jour

GOLDEN GATE
By Mumbley Joe
Hat tip to Ezra Klein

Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

If anyone in the Obama campaign is listening, tell your candidate to take his foot off the centrism accelerator. He's feeding the left more centrism than they can digest all at once. We all knew and expected that you would tack to the center once the nomination was secured. But you definitely should dole this stuff out in a more piecemeal fashion. You're actually starting to damage the unity, motivation, and credibility of your base. And that has its costs.

-- BOOMAN

If Obama truly wants to be seen as a figure of change, he needs to talk less about the past and more about the future: not the war that should never have been fought but the war that he, alone of the two candidates, can find an honorable way to end.

-- GEORGE PACKER

An old saw has it that to a carpenter, every problem is fixed with a hammer. Can our problems best be solved with bombs according to McCain's military training? Will our problems be solved by using powerful family connections, abandoning past commitments and getting into bed with someone wealthy the way John solved his? Perhaps so. George Bush also tried to solve our problems, and the problems he created, according to his military background: that is to say, with lies, cover-ups, shredded records, invented stories and massive secrecy using the aid of powerful and wealthy allies. That's pretty much what he did during his brief and disastrous business adventure as well. Let's not do it again.

-- CAPT. FOGG

Obama is John Kerry with a tan.

-- GROVER NORQUIST

Now the McCain campaign is accusing the Obama campaign of coordinating with Jim Webb to "attack" McCain's war service.

-- GREG SARGENT

[S]ince Obama dispatched Clinton, he has seemed rather more attuned to what the people want to hear or perhaps he has simply traded the wants of a liberal audience for those of a more moderate one. Either way, he is treading that reliably time-worn path every nominee follows to the political centre. And the question for Democrats is whether to applaud Obama as a cunning politician who knows how to win or fret that he's given undecided voters reason to think his 'politics of hope' are just politics as usual.

-- MICHAEL CROWLEY

John McCain is considering picking Mitt Romney as his VP because of Romney's ability to raise beaucoup bucks from the business and Mormon communities. But if Romney goes to major donors in the business community and picks up $2,300 checks by the bushel, he'll just bolster the image of Obama as the people-powered candidate in the race. The ads are easy: John McCain gets big checks from Mitt Romney's fat cat friends. Barack Obama is funded by people like you. Please give $20 today.

-- JONATHAN STEIN

I have no idea whether Bill Clinton really said that Obama will have to "kiss his ass" in order to get his support. But I am curious as to exactly where this dude thinks his leverage is coming from.

-- TA-NEHISI COATES

Already, Obama is changing his tune from his old, and irresponsibly heated, rhetoric about "immediate" withdrawal to talking about the need for policies that would adapt to the improving conditions in Iraq. Given Obama's ideological leanings and inexperience, there's clearly plenty of room for him to make costly mistakes. But odds are he too would come to realize that America needs to win the war on terror and succeed in Iraq. Hence the greatest irony. A successful Obama presidency would have the unintended consequence of making Bush's memoir a success story.

-- JONAH GOLDBERG

Cartoon by Signe Wilkinson/Philadelphia Daily News

What A Reversal of Fortune: We've Met The Enemy & It's Our Very Own Leaders

Remember when conservatives warned that dope-smoking hippies were going to destroy America? How ironic since it is our conservative leaders who are doing most of the damage.

While those oh so liberal Democrats will no doubt have their own chance to screw things up and as it is have been feckless helpmates of the Republicans, the fallout from the 1994 Contract on America through George Bush's Reign of Error is simply mind boggling:

* Tax cuts for the rich at the expense of everyone else, including programs like Head Start that actually work.

* Runaway big-government deficit spending.

* Economic policies the reward Wall Street and punish Main Street.

* A bomb-first-ask-questions-later foreign policy.

* Despite 9/11, a flimsy homeland security apparatus and a military that is focused not on defense but projecting American might.

* Two failed wars.

* The embrace of torture and rejection of international convenants.

* Making a hash out of terrorist prosecutions.

* Failure to confront the crises in health care and education.

* An energy policy predicated on foreign oil global warming denial.

* Executive power grabs that have skewed the system of checks and balances.

* Bad behavior by people like Tom DeLay and Paul Wolfowitz who go on to second and third careers as public personas whom we are told should be taken seriously.

* Using their bully pulpit not to lead and inspire but to feign piety, sew fear and wage culture wars.

Oh, and by the way, arrests for dope smoking today exceed those for all violent crimes combined.

Memo to MoveOn: Time To Tone It Down

I don't suffer fools gladly, so I kept MoveOn at arm's length in 2004 and 2006, but after the General Betrayus ad controversy last year finally concluded that these trash talking and tone deaf so-called progressives are bound to do more harm than good as Barack Obama leads the charge to end the Republican hegemony in Washington.

And so it was gratifying when the presumptive Democratic nominee gently but necessarily chided MoveOn in his speech on patriotism yesterday in saying:

"[S]ome of those in the so-called counter-culture of the Sixties reacted not merely by criticizing particular government policies, but by attacking the symbols, and in extreme cases, the very idea, of America itself - by burning flags; by blaming America for all that was wrong with the world; and perhaps most tragically, by failing to honor those veterans coming home from Vietnam, something that remains a national shame to this day. And yet the anger and turmoil of that period never entirely drained away. All too often our politics still seems trapped in these old, threadbare arguments - a fact most evident during our recent debates about the war in Iraq, when those who opposed administration policy were tagged by some as unpatriotic, and a general providing his best counsel on how to move forward in Iraq was accused of betrayal."

Taking MoveOn to task does not come easily. I cut my social activist teeth in the late 60s and understood that while Students For a Democratic Society and some other groups could be off message and self absorbed, they were integral to fighting the good fight.

So is Move On. Indeed, I am not asking that it get with Obama's program. Independent voices are more important than ever in this era of homogenized politics. But if MoveOn is determined to trample on Obama's message because he is not sufficiently leftist and unwilling to jump through its hoops, then its stridency will not only be a negative force but a reliable punching bag for the right-of-center punditocracy, and the last thing Obama needs are surrogates who make things more difficult.

A final thought: Some MoveOn activists see themselves as the reincarnation of the Vietnam antiwar movement, but as someone who was in the midst of that movement, this is a bad joke and they're the last people in the room to get it.

These adolescents have been notably unsuccessful in fashioning a cogent message, in part because they keep stepping on their willies when it comes to addressing the ancillary issue of terrorism, and opposition to the Iraq war has grown slowly but steadily without their help.

IT NEEDED TO BE SAID

While we're kind of on the subject, former General Wesley Clark's view that John McCain's POW experience doesn't automatically translate into him being prime commander in chief material has been widely criticized, taken out of context and otherwise flogged as being inappropriate.

It is in fact highly appropriate given McCain's blinkered view of Iraq and his willingness to bomb first and talk later when it comes to Iran. Too bad that Clark's remarks have kind of upstaged Obama's patriotism speech and the candidate himself says he doesn't approve of them, but they were a much needed pushback against the archaic and platitude driven views of what constitutes patriotism for too many Americans.

And Now A Word From Our Sponsor

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These do-dads are arrayed down the right sidebar.

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Some of the headline and paragraph breaks and type faces are a bit riotous, and while we take pride in how we dress, there's not a whole lot to be done about it. Apologies.

Image from Bizzen99

Al Qaeda Pigeons Come Home To Roost

How big of a hash has the U.S. made of its so-called fight against Al Qaeda? It's pretty much been a total mess, and it's a lead pipe cinch that George Bush will head back to Texas with the terrorist organization rebuilt and relocated in Pakistan with Osama bin Laden still at the helm.

But no matter, the people who attacked us on 9/11 were located in Iraq anyhow, right? And things are going so swimmingly there that we're getting ready to declare war on its neighbor, Iran, right?.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that Bush administration officials finally gave the green light last year to a secret plan to make it easier for Pentagon Special Ops forces to launch missions into the mountainous tribal areas of western Pakistan to capture or kill The Bearded One and other AG bigs, but the mission has been bogged down by missteps and policy disagreements.

More here.

Tommy Franks: Master of Disaster

The Army's own official history now confirms many earlier accounts of General Tommy Franks' overweaning ineptitude, including Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas Ricks:

" 'History will record that America's strategy istory will record that America's strategy for fighting terrorism was a good strategy, that the plan for Operation Iraqi Freedom was a good plan -- and that the execution of that plan by our young men and women in uniform was unequalled in its excellence by anything in the annals of war,' Gen. Franks asserted in his memoir, American Soldier.

"It now seems more likely that history's judgment will be that the U.S. invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003 was based on perhaps the worst war plan in American history. It was a campaign plan for a few battles, not a plan to prevail and secure victory. Its incompleteness helped created the conditions for the difficult occupation that followed. The invasion is of interest now mainly for its role in creating these problems.

"In the spring of 2003 the U.S. military fought the battle it wanted to fight, mistakenly believing it would be the only battle it faced. This was a failure of thinking, and planning, and the first of several strategic missteps that would place the U.S. occupation of Iraq on a foundation of sand."

The Problem With The Air Force's DNA

Robert Farley at Lawyers, Gun$ & Money has again taken on a favorite topic of mine: Why the Army and Navy seem to be able to reinvent themselves when the need arises but the Air Force is determinedly stuck in the past.

As I wrote here in arguing that it is time to clip the Air Force's wings, it is only 70 percent of the size it was after the First Gulf War, but it remains bloated as it tries to justify both its presence and independence in the rapidly changing world of warfare.

Farley concludes that:

"The Air Force lacks historical traditions to borrow from, both because it is such a new service, and because it has been a worldwide leader since its inception. Put briefly, the Air Force only knows the Cold War; it only understands conflict in terms of great power struggle, and as such all future planning (in contrast to short term compromises) will be oriented around that organizational purpose. To ask the Air Force not to think in terms of great power is to ask it not to be the Air Force, but rather some other organization born at some other time for some other purpose. As such, [Robert] Gates cleaning out of the brass isn't really going to amount to much; it is literally in the DNA of the Air Force to act in this way."

More here.

'Greatest Financial Scandal In History'

There's a fascinating story in the new Vanity Fair on the collapse of Bear Stearns, which was not done in by rumors that it was in precarious financial shape, but by the fact the rumors were true.

Image by Roger Wollenberg

Beautiful Photograph du Jour

ILLUSION
By Beatrice Jansen

Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

John McCain doesn't know how to use a computer. John McCain doesn't know when he last pumped gas or what it cost. John McCain owns seven homes and forgot to pay taxes on one of them for the past four years. But at least he's not an elitist like Barack Obama. He earned his money the old-fashioned way -- marrying an heiress.

-- MATTHEW YGLESIAS

After a year and a half of sturm und drang, Democrats can be forgiven for crass celebration, but the aftertaste is that of an over-planned children's party with nervous parents providing too much sweets, too many balloons, too many games. . . . now comes the grownup part--inducing Hillary diehards to sign on and really mean it, coming to terms with the political Obama who is emerging from behind the Great Oz screen.

-- ROBERT STEIN

It's kind of a common wisdom that Republicans will do anything to win elections. At the least, they're willing to bend the rules a lot further than the Democrats. Some people even admire them for that. But, you know, I don't believe it anymore. Look at them stand by and get decimated without changing a damn thing about their policies or even their rhetoric. They're like lambs being led to slaughter and there's almost no fight in them. John McCain is running the most conventional Republican race conceivable. And the congressional incumbents still have not broken with the least popular president in American history.

-- BOOMAN

For a candidate who touts a mantra of "Change" until people turn a little green around the gills whenever they hear it, Obama better be careful. Even a cursory examination of his record in Chicago as a state senator bringing "change" to public housing would cause voters to ask some serious questions about his competence.

-- RICK MORAN

When it comes to the colour of his skin, it seems Barack Obama just cannot win. For some, he is not black enough or not white enough, too black or too white.

-- LOLA ADESIOYE

In the two months since Pennsylvania's April 22 primary, Democrats have added more voters than Republicans in all but five of the state's 67 counties and increased their statewide lead by 40,566 voters by the end of last week. Republicans have lost nearly 1,500 registered voters since the primary.

-- DERRICK NUNNALLY

Senators Larry Craig and David Vitter are co-sponsoring the federal "Marriage Protection Amendment." I guess they thought the "I'll suck your dick for money in a public restroom while wearing diapers" amendment was a bit cumbersome.

-- SIR CHARLES

The problems in Africa — famines, pestilence, revolution — all come from the root political failures of African governments. Aid to these nations help perpetuate the failed political structures like those of not just Mugabe but across the entire continent. Unless we have vital national security interests at stake, we should adopt a hands-off policy towards Africa and aid until such time as they adopt responsible governments. The cessation of fawning over dictators like Mugabe would be one sign of that development.

-- ED MORRISSEY

Cartoon by Tony Auth/The Philadelphia Inquirer