"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
I mean, really, really insane. We’re talking transcendently insane: Bush/Clinton in 2004 (Clinton being, of course, Hillary). Isn’t that lunatic? I got the idea from a poster from this dKos thread about that popularity poll. dKos is especially amusing today, by the way: the post after that one is sort of about how Dean doesn’t … Read more
Gary Farber of Amygdala is apparently in a bit of a hole financially and could use some help. He’s an all right guy (when he isn’t correcting our grammar) and it is the Christmas season… your call to make; I didn’t begrudge him a twenty. Moe
Just in from Fox News : BAGHDAD, Iraq — At least five people were killed in a large explosion that ripped through a restaurant in central Baghdad Wednesday and there were reports that Iraqi police said it may have been caused by a homicide bomber. This is not an occasion to try to score political … Read more
It’s interesting: we’ve had this blog up and running for just over a month, and already we’ve jumped into at least three contests. There was Wizbang’s 2003 Weblog Awards (it was a shame that our site was still jumping up and down the Ecosystem at the time, because I felt too weird about voting for … Read more
While flipping through the site of a certain new smart-aleck visitor I came across this gem that I had read about earlier: Castro Photo Gets a Hitler Makeover. I respect the cojones of whoever did this*, and humbly suggest that they stand not on the order of their coming but go at once. I’d further … Read more
I’d just like to note for the record that we’re currently #2 for Google searches using naked women as the search string. #1 is a Salon article about Mr. Spock’s nudes. (pause) The Internet is weird, man. UPDATE: My smarter half has pointed out that we’re #12, not #2. Oh, well, something to aim for.
Thanks to regular Tacitus poster Timmy the Wonder Dog I was alerted to this piece of Lileksian amusement. Amusing stuff… and, in the spirit of the holiday, we’re going to designate this as… THE NEW YEAR’S POLITICAL RESOLUTION THREAD!!!!! Right. Anyway, the rules are simple: 1) Come up with a political resolution that applies to … Read more
Ashcroft has opted out of the Plame game, recusing himself in favor of Peter Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Although there were a few ruffled feathers when Fitzgerald was appointed — he’s not a native son of Chicago, but rather a carpetbagger from New York (so to speak) — all accounts are that he’s nonpartisan, sharp, and relentless.*
This is an excellent decision by Ashcroft. But why now?
From the Washington Post, troubling news about our attempts to rebuild Iraq’s police force.
As the U.S.-led governing authority in Iraq attempts to build a security force of 220,000 in the next few months, the competing priorities of speed and thoroughness have prompted shortcuts in the recruiting and training process. The consequences are starting to become apparent. . . . more than 200 Iraqi policemen in Baghdad have been dismissed and dozens of others have had their pay slashed for crimes ranging from pawning government equipment to extortion and kidnapping. . . . . In addition, roughly 2,500 people on the payroll of the Facilities Protection Service, which guards government buildings, either do not exist or have not been showing up to work . . . . [A] number of Border Patrol officers have been disciplined for accepting bribes in exchange for allowing people without proper identification to enter Iraq.
The importance of building a capable Iraqi police force cannot be overstated. Iraq needs substantial foreign investment to rebuild its infrastructure, institutions, and public services. The principle barrier to that investment is security.*
Many (including I) have chanted the mantra of “more troops, more money, more international involvement” as a solution to Iraq’s security issues. Our chanting has gone unheeded. The US lacks the will to commit the troops necessary to do the job, and the period during which a massive show of US force might have been effective has slipped us by. The time for chanting is past. The Iraqis must pick up the slack.
Indeed, the US military could have provided, at most, only tempory relief. And resort to the rebuilt Iraqi army — tempting though it may be — is also no substitute. It is the role of the Iraqi police to protect Iraqis. Having the police actually police is what is meant by “the rule of law.”
“[W]hen have you ever seen the police lead a coup?” Casteel explained. “If you build a strong police force, you have a republic. If you build a strong military, you have a banana republic.”
What are we building in Iraq? What shape do we wish Iraqification to take? And, if anything is an improvement over Saddam, does that make everything acceptable?
It’s time to stop celebrating the capture of Saddam. There’s work to do.
von
…but this Dave Barry year in review thing got funnier the farther in I read. Equal-opportunity skewering galore. (via Peevish, which has also been belatedly blogrolled)