Matthew Duss

In a strong early contender for worst column of the year, Tony Blankley weighs the costs of the Iraq war: First, of course, the debit side must be noted, foremost the human cost, to date: about 4,000 dead American troops, about 30,000 injured, perhaps half seriously, including more than 600 amputees and about 3,000 diagnosed […]

Josh Patashnik, responding to Andy McCarthy‘s claim that Benazir Bhutto was killed “by the real Pakistan”: [This] seems to me akin to saying in 1968 that Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed by the “real America”–not completely absurd, but far from capturing the reality of the situation. It’s an insult to the disenfranchised majority of […]

Max Boot claims “Charlie Wilson’s War” for his team, describing “neocon movies” thusly: Movies…that support active American intervention in the world in support of our ideals as well as our strategic interests. Now, of course, that’s not neoconservatism, that’s just plain good old liberal internationalism. Neoconservatism, as practiced by actual neoconservatives, is more accurately characterized […]

Cernig comments on reports that Muqtada al-Sadr may extend the cease fire he declared in late August. (Via Eric Martin.) Meanwhile, Cap’n Ed puzzles over why Sadr continues to refuse to play his assigned part in the “decline into political obsolescence” narrative that the Cap’n and so many other conservative scribes have persisted in writing […]

Negar Azimi explains how, rather than continuing to pressure Egypt on human rights and democratic reform, the Bush administration has reverted to supporting Hosni Mubarak‘s dictatorship, treating it as an ally in the “war on terror” and a bulwark against the growing Iranian and Islamist influence which has resulted from the U.S. invasion and occupation […]

I’m telling you, reading the office copy of Jonah Goldberg‘s Liberal Fascism is like touring Willie Wonka‘s factory: A new, wonderful surprise awaits around every corner. Except instead of treats and sweeties, there are big, steaming piles of right-wing cant. Using the Jonah-vator (it goes sideways and slantways and longways and backways and squareways and […]

As part of the Weekly Standard‘s ongoing effort cast blame on Iran (and, whenever possible, the Democrats) for the fact that reality has not cooperated with Bill Kristol‘s bong-hit fantasies about the salutary regional effects of an American invasion of Iraq , Jonathan Karl suggests that Iraq’s refusal to send a representative to the Annapolis […]

With all the attention being paid to Jonah Goldberg‘s forthcoming very serious, thoughtful argument that has never been made in such detail or with such care, it’s easy to forget that Goldberg also makes transparently ridiculous arguments about lots of things that have nothing to do with misrepresenting the nature and history of fascism. For […]

Saudi King Abdullah has pardoned “Qatif girl,” the young Saudi Shia woman who was kidnapped and raped, then sentenced to 90 lashes for the crime of being alone with a man to whom she was not related, then sentenced to prison time and an additional 200 lashes for appealing the first sentence. The “Qatif girl” […]