There’s a line from one of Johnny Cash’s final songs that adequately sums up the new Iraq strategy proposal released yesterday by Fred Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute. Go tell that long tongue liar, Johnny sings, go and tell that midnight rider; tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter — tell ’em that […]
Spencer Ackerman
Spencer Ackerman, a senior correspondent for The American Prospect, is a senior reporter for The Washington Independent.
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THE WASHINGTON POST…
THE WASHINGTON POST AND DOUBLE STANDARDS. In the midst of apologizing for Pinochet, The Washington Post drops this bombshell while apologizing for Pinochet-apologist Jeane Kirkpatrick: The contrast between Cuba and Chile more than 30 years after Mr. Pinochet’s coup is a reminder of a famous essay written by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, the provocative and energetic […]
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No Middle Ground
Given the specific lineup of the 10 wise men and women serving on the Iraq Study Group, the most conspicuous absence is that of supermodel Heidi Klum. Sure, she has no relevant experience in foreign policy, nor any real knowledge of Iraq — but neither do commissioners Sandra Day O’Connor, Vernon Jordan, Alan Simpson, or […]
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MORE IMPORTANTLY?
MORE IMPORTANTLY? I spent my morning at the Iraq Study Group’s press conference on the Hill. (I’ll have a piece for TAP on all this imminently.) Many bizarre things were said, but one that revealed the ISG’s midset particularly well was this, courtesy of co-chair Lee Hamilton: “We have one last chance at making Iraq […]
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STANDING IN THE WAY OF CONTROL.
STANDING IN THE WAY OF CONTROL. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of SCIRI and commander-in-chief of the fearsome Badr Corps, left his meeting today with President Bush for a brief appearance at the U.S. Institute of Peace this afternoon. I asked Hakim: You’ve been accused of the abduction, torture, and execution of perhaps thousands of Sunnis. […]
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BEST UN AMBASSADOR EVER.
BEST UN AMBASSADOR EVER. You don’t want to read me on the end of John Bolton‘s tenure as United Nations ambassador, you want to read Fast Leon. But I had to chuckle when I saw this line in today’s AP write-up: [White House spokeswoman Dana] Perino said that among Bolton’s accomplishments, he assembled coalitions addressing […]
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GO NOWHERE.
GO NOWHERE. Thanks to Tom Ricks, we learn that the Pentagon’s Iraq review promises more of the same — an infusion of an unspecified number of forces for an unspecified period of time to fight the insurgents, and an eventual but unspecific shift in emphasis to the training of Iraqi troops and police. This is […]
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Permission to Stand Down
Sometime between now and March 15, 2007, everything you know about the Iraq debate will change. It won’t be because of any dramatic shift in the fortunes of a disastrous war: If current trends continue, the five coming months offer the escalation of the Iraqi civil war, the 3,000th American service death, and more disgraceful […]
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THE WORST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS.
THE WORST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS. As long as TNR is trying to find the pony in Iraq, it’s worth observing that the U.S.-sponsored Maliki government has just escalated the civil war tremendously. Maliki has just issued an arrest warrant for Harith al-Dhari, the leader of the most prominent Sunni organization, the Association of Muslim […]
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CRUELTY AND SILENCE.
CRUELTY AND SILENCE. The New Republic fired me before it published its Iraq symposium. Oh well — it had been made clear to me that I wouldn’t have been invited to contribute anyway. So now I take up my new role: foul-weather critic of its latest spineless Iraq editorial. (In TNR-speak, a “lede.”) Among the […]
