Edward _

Twice during her public testimony before the 9/11 commission, Dr. Rice noted that “if we had known that an attack was coming… we would have moved heaven and earth to stop it.”

I thought that seemed a bit hyperbolic at the time, but, like “tired of swatting flies”, I understood it to be just a figure of speech. Then it got repeated a bit more, that phrase, in the kind of repetition that makes you think it was on a talking points memo:

White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett, …[said] on The Early Show…”Trust me, if the President of the United States thought that there were operations to hijack planes to crash into New York City and Washington, D.C., he would have moved heaven and earth to prevent it.”

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I’m still optimistic about Iraq settling down once the holidays pass and the Marines demonstrate that they’re not going anywhere (the alternative is too bleak to contemplate), but this account of where we stand, one year after the fall of Hussein, is not how I’d have predicted the story would be told at this point.

Some selected observations from L.A. Times writer John Daniszewski :

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Hat tip to reader sidereal for this link to a blog you may not know, where up-close and personal accounts (and photos) of what’s happening in Iraq are being posted by a self-proclaimed “Republican” working for an international NGO.

Among the recent posts:

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There’s a member of my family who has, shall we say, an “impressive” collection of firearms (all legal Mr. FBI…no need to go visit him again…er, um…), and in fact among the men in my family, I’d guess the average number of firearms owned is about 4, maybe 5. I own one rifle, but it’s at my parents’ place…NYC not offering much in the way of free, legal target practice. Baptised in the “be prepared” propaganda of the Cold War, nearly everyone in my family has contingency plans, stockpiles of canned goods, extra batteries for the flashlight, etc., and would truly be prepared if catastrophe struck…or, as they might admit if pressed, their darkest fear/fantasy came true and their was need to overthrow an invading force or our own corrupted/threatening government. Again, Mr. FBI, there is no need to revisit…it’s a mindset, not an actual plot…

I mention this in response to the seeming surprise in the tone of the New York Times reporter’s account of the Khadamiya bazaar uprising in Baghdad yesterday:

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Pentagon report on Afghanistan criticizes war strategy: report

A retired army colonel commissioned by the Pentagon to examine the war in Afghanistan concluded the conflict created conditions that have given “warlordism, banditry and opium production a new lease on life.”

Retired Army Colonel Hy Rothstein, who served in the Army Special Forces for more than 20 years, wrote in a military analysis he gave to the Pentagon in January that the US failed to adapt to new conditions created by the Taliban’s collapse, The New Yorker magazine reported.

“The failure to adjust US operations in line with the post-Taliban change in theater conditions cost the United States some of the fruits of victory and imposed additional, avoidable humanitarian and stability costs on Afghanistan,” Rothstein wrote in the report.

“Indeed, the war’s inadvertent effects may be more significant than we think.”

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