Why Dems' Iraq pullout failed
Anne Flaherty (Hat tip: Surber)

WASHINGTON - Democrats' momentum on their anti-war effort has stalled abruptly, ending weeks of White House hand-wringing.

The reason? A convincing four-star general, an activist group that overplayed its hand and a plainspoken Defense secretary who doesn't bother to defend the Iraq invasion.

"I think it's better today," Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said of the war. "I think we're on a better path than we were."

Although a longtime skeptic of President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq, Alexander joined his GOP colleagues in blocking each of the Democrats' three anti-war bills this week.

His vote and those of his colleagues dealt a demoralizing blow this week to Democrats, who had hoped that by September more Republicans would have broken party ranks. Republican votes are crucial because Democrats lack a veto-proof majority in Congress.

Above all, GOP members say they were deeply impressed by the testimony last week of Gen. David Petraeus, top commander in Iraq. ...

Does SOCOM have Spec Ops troop's backs?
Jim Hanson

The cases of CPT Dave Staffel and MSG Troy Anderson seem very strange and the circumstances that led to their being charged with murder even stranger.

They are charged for the shooting of an Afghani male who had been identified and vetted by ODA 374 as a High Value Target and leader of a local terrorist cell. He was shot by MSG Anderson from approx. 100 yards on order from CPT Staffel. Both agreed they had positive identification (PID) of Nawab Buntangyar, and their Rules of Engagement (ROE) allowed them to use lethal force once they had PID of enemy forces or combatants. This standard was met and the hammer dropped.

The problem is the hammer was then dropped on these two gentlemen for this action seemingly in accordance with ROE.  ...

Eric B. has more here.

Rather v. CBS: Experts, "boardroom truth"
versus "courtroom truth," and settlement values
Beldar (H/T: Clarice Feldman)

... The danger inherent in Dan Rather's new lawsuit against CBS is that neither side's self-interests will necessarily be served by "truth." To the contrary, both sides are undoubtedly guilty of hiding things from the American public in the past, and both are likely to have compelling reasons to continue to hide things — not just from each other, but from the public — as pretrial discovery proceeds. ...

See also:

• Rather's Revenge
• Dan Rather, OJ and the Culture of the Delusional Celebrity

Quick hits:

• Patterico: Reynolds and Balko on the “Jena 6″
• Dafydd ab Hugh: Jena Justice

• Israeli commandos seized nuke material in Syria before air raid?

• William Kristol: Hillary Rodham Kerry

• U.S. admits nearly 10,000 from "terrorism" states

• Video: Rudy confuses the Second Amendment with the Fourth — in front of the NRA

• Don Surber: The Week That Was

• HamNation Video: Vets for Freedom and Families United 

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 22, 2007 at 12:24 AM | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: Scrapiron

An armchair general strikes again. I'll bet he's planning a political career as a demorat.

Posted by: Scrapiron | Sep 22, 2007 11:05:10 PM

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