Opinion-Columns.com

Supporting Shiites, Arming Sunnis, Selling Out the Kurds—Bush’s Personal Surge

I am not a big fan of Robert Novak, the columnist who outed Valerie Plame and then sat back to watch the toil and trouble of his outsmanship. He wrote another incendiary column yesterday and I am taking it for the straight scoop, because there are no ifs, ands or buts, no unnamed sources, no apparent conjecture.

Finally, In the Department of Desperate Moves

In an article (U.S. Widens Push to Use Armed Iraqi Residents) detailing another crackpot scheme in Iraq, the Washington Post tells us,

    The U.S. military in Iraq is expanding its efforts to recruit and fund armed         Sunni residents as local protection forces in order to improve security and         promote reconciliation at the neighborhood level, according to senior U.S.         commanders.

To Hell with Gandhi and Jesus, We've Opted for Attila

I know all about realities of the times and military parity and supporting our dwindling allies, so don’t accuse me of being a peacenik (although there are worse things to be called). According to Robin Wright of the Washington Post,

The Bush administration will announce next week a series of arms deals worth at least $20 billion to Saudi Arabia and five other oil-rich Persian Gulf states as well as new 10-year military aid packages to Israel and Egypt, a move to shore up allies in the Middle East and counter Iran's rising influence, U.S. officials said yesterday.

The Party’s Over

"In just a few days, shares of Internet travel company Expedia lost 12 percent of their value." That, according to an article in the Washington Post a couple days ago. What am I saying? A blip at an Internet company signals the end of the financial world?

The Pentagon Budget—Breaking the Bank

According to the president’s 2007 budget request for the Pentagon,

Informed by the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), the FY (fiscal year) 2007 Budget reflects the Department’s continued shift in emphasis, away from the static posture and forces of the last century toward the highly mobile and expeditionary forces, and accompanying warfighting capabilities, needed in the century ahead.

Barry Bonds and Dick Cheney

The United States and Iran have agreed to a second round of what is termed their ‘groundbreaking’ talks over what to do in the shattered Middle East. The reason these discussions are groundbreaking is that America has refused to talk since the hostage dispute of five presidencies ago. Took our marbles and went home. Sulked in the corner for 26 years while the Arabian peninsula went to hell in a hand-basket.

The Case for Not Waiting Out This Presidency

It’s almost too apparent to compare current refusals-to-submit of the Bush-Cheney White House with the bad old days of Richard Nixon stonewalling similar inquiry. Both used ‘executive privilege’ as an excuse to ward off the evil minions who would do them dirt—dastardly organizations like the House of Representatives, the Senate and the courts.

Homeland Security Down the Toilet

My gut tells me it’s probably a good thing the Department of Homeland Security is feeling the heat again. I hated that communist sounding Slavs-in-a-wheatfield name anyway. Americans have celebrated their country for 231 years, but hardly their homeland. You don’t see Yanks dropping to their knees to kiss the ground of the homeland when they get off airplanes. Mostly they’re just relieved to still have their shoes and the belt-buckle they got on with.

Winner Take All is not the same as Democratic Process

The form of democratic government we have chosen to live under is meant to be contentious. Argument is the grease that slips and slides us on our way toward values we can live with. Not necessarily my values or yours, but shared beliefs, hammered out with enough consensus to keep us from screaming profanities and slamming doors.

Pointing Fingers on Human Rights Abuses

Of course he is only a black man and it is Georgia.