The most dramatic option is simply to leave Iraq —i.e., to bring all the troops home as soon as possible. This is the course advocated by, for example, the New York Times and Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson. But even the Times admits that the consequences would likely be very unpleasant...

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It's like a how a dull knife inflicts the nastiest wounds. The monsters we call "our troops" are now throwing intact, unused ammunition at poor elderly Iraqi women to inflict the cruelest wound of all: mocking disdain.

Sure seems like a ripe picture for photoshopping. What other deadly implements might our boys have tossed at her home? What other instruments of death might be seen held in that gnarled hand?

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Supervisor drafted the resolution with three peace advocacy groups — CodePink, Global Exchange and Veterans for Peace, Chapter 69 — because, he says, the flyovers “pose a public safety risk”

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"They didn't do it to practice alone. They're making a point, doing it outside of their normal training cycle," he told Reuters. "They maintain capability."

Russian bombers were also tracked last week flying a course toward Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific.

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Don't believe the naysayers. Afghanistan is doing as well as anyone has a right to expect

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The New Republic has gone mad. Perhaps the magazine brought its former employee, fantasist Steven Glass, out of retirement. It's long past time for The New Republic to file for intellectual Chapter 7. Arthur Andersen was implicated in fewer frauds.

And we wonder how Democratic congressmen can lie about a vote they lost on the floor of the House -- captured on CSPAN for all the world to see -- changing the vote so that they win.

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Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush's new war adviser said Friday.

"And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation's security by one means or another," Lute added in his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.

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There is mounting evidence of a campaign by militants to target “collaborators” as British Forces prepare to leave. Hundreds of interpreters and other locally engaged staff working for the coalition have been kidnapped, tortured and murdered over the past four years.

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Take it from this old KGB hand: The left is abetting America's enemies with its intemperate attacks on President Bush

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Five Marines still face charges in the November 19, 2005, shooting of two dozen unarmed men, women and children in Haditha, which prosecutors say came in retaliation for the death of a beloved comrade, Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, who was cut in half by a roadside bomb.

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According to the military source, Beauchamp's recantation was volunteered on the first day of the military's investigation. So as Beauchamp was in Iraq signing an affidavit denying the truth of his stories, the New Republic was publishing a statement from him on its website on July 26, in which Beauchamp said, "I'm willing to stand by the entirety of my articles for the New Republic using my real name."

Now that the military investigation has concluded, the great unanswered question in the affair is this: Did Scott Thomas Beauchamp lie under oath to U.S. Army investigators, or did he lie to his editors at the New Republic? Beauchamp has recanted under oath. Does the New Republic still stand by his stories?

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Susan Page reports that President Bush is making some headway in arguing that the increase in U.S. troops in Iraq is showing military progress

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The American people should have gotten a sense of what was coming: a long, hard war. In its early hours, I called it a “colder war” because it would blend all the killing and suffering of traditional warfare with all the tension and uncertainty of the Cold War to produce something different than before, something that could challenge a country with a short memory and even shorter attention span—a colder, harsher strain of conflict.

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When distinguished visitors come to almost-where the action is, it can be disruptive to the point of wasteful. I’ve heard commanders grumble all over Iraq about the steady streams of VIPs who, while intending to be seen observing operations, instead seize the mechanics with their clumsy footprint. These are called “dog and pony shows.”

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A more effective approach, said Gingrich, would begin with a national energy strategy aimed at weaning the country from its reliance on imported oil and some of the regimes that petro-dollars support.

He reserved his most pointed criticism for the administration’s handling of the global campaign against terrorist groups.

“We’ve been engaged in a phony war,” said Gingrich. “The only people who have been taking this seriously are the combat military.”

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Reggie L. Buddle of Puyallup, standing in the khaki shirt, during the 2006 opening ceremony for the Washington State Senate.

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In fairness, by “us” he seems to be referring to the House Democratic leadership, not the left as a whole. For the left a good progress report is no problem at all; they’ll shrug it off, dismiss Petraeus as a Bush stooge who’s probably racist and secretly gay, and go right on pounding on about withdrawal. For the leadership, a good report is a headache: it might encourage the Blue Dogs to side with the GOP to continue the mission, thereby leaving Pelosi with a howling anti-war base and no way to placate them.

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