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Tainted Love

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Forward Movement - By Jules Crittenden - Feb. 24 (Comment) - About 8 in 10 Americans said Republicans should be working in a bipartisan way rather than holding fast to their policies, the poll found, with almost three-quarters of Republican respondents agreeing that bipartisanship was preferable.

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12 Captains - With an alarmingly poor grasp of political ...

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:00:06 -0700

Forward Movement - By Jules Crittenden - Oct. 16 (Opinion) - This will be cited as more iron-clad proof that the military can't win in Iraq, and even the military doesn't think so. Petraeus' erstwhile counter-insurgency advisor, Australian LTC David Kilcullen, said an interesting thing recently. When you served in Iraq tends to color how you view Iraq. Here's the list of captains and when they served. No 2007s in there. All the 2007s are still over there. I'd add that where you served probably makes a difference as well, as some critics have suggested the NYT's seven grunt war critics who are 2007-deployed soldiers were doing combat patrols in a particularly bad area. However, along with those seven grunts and a handful of generals, this oped will be cited as evidence the military itself doesn't think it can win.

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Lazy, Stupid or Willfully Ignorant?

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 13:42:16 -0700

Forward Movement - By Jules Crittenden - Jul. 12 (News Report) - Right now, all the talk in DC is whether there has been any progress in Iraq. No one can wait till September. They need to know now. Primarily, it appears, because they need to kill the war for their own domestic political reasons before it kills them. Most people, of course, already have the answer they want. But how come, if this is the pressing issue of the day, we've seen no serious effort whatsoever among our leading news organizations to tell us or our political leaders what is actually happening?

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Brits Split

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 08:43:16 -0800

Forward Movement - By Jules Crittenden - Feb. 21 (Opinion) - Brits are halving their force in Iraq. Tony Blair, who long fought within his own party to do the right thing in Iraq, is giving in to political forces he is no longer willing to fight. He's leaving himself soon enough, so he might as well set the terms for the British draw down, to leave a reaction force in Basra, rather than allow someone else to precipitate a total withdrawal. At the Captain's Quarters, Ed sees it as the natural denouement of the mission. I'm more inclined to agree with Daily Pundit, who calls it the beginnings of peace and run. With the Iraqi government in an unstable situation and a major confrontation shaping up with Iran in Iraq, the Shiite south should not be left without significant supervision. Anymore than Baghdad or Anbar can be.

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Hardball, Anyone? - Not the TV blah blah blah show ... the game.

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 09:14:31 -0800

Forward Movement - By Jules Crittenden - Feb. 07 (Opinion) - Hey, I just remembered. Teheran doesn't respect our diplomatic immunity or sovereignty of our embassy. So what obligation do we have to respect theirs? Stratfor notes that in addition to supporting insurgents and militias that kill American soldiers, Iran also is suspected of complicity in abduction and murder of five American soldiers in Karbala last month. I'd add the heavily armed force of religious wackjobs who were annihiliated on the murder march outside Najaf a couple of days before Ashoura. OK, we've established that Iran has it coming.

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On Reflection

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 08:48:29 -0800

Forward Movement - By jules crittenden - Jan. 10 (Opinion) - George Bush will address us tonight, and show us the way forward. The general outline has been floated: Up to 20,000 more troops, ready to move in by the end of the month. Hammer time for Baghdad and Anbar, already underway with 80 insurgents killed on Haifa Street since Saturday. Haifa Street. I know that place. Funny how a news report of 80 dead can make you wistful. Importuning Iraqis at the wire, including one who asked my buddy Pasto, "Will we all be Americans now?" Pasto thought about it. "Maybe," he said. Stray RPGs and machine gun fire flying up the street from a fight with some Syrians holed up in a mosque, and an unseen guy with a pistol harrassing us with potshots in Shuhada Square. I ignored him, figuring he couldn't hit me with a pistol if he wanted to. "Try harder, Achmed." Until I heard the "zing" by my head and the "splat" of the bullet against the wall behind me. "Ooh. Achmed's good!" The GIs killed some fedayeen there. I saw the Iraqi slum dwellers carrying their limp, torn bodies off the blast-damaged tenement balcony from which they had intended to fire their RPG.

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Murtha vs. Hoyer: Sit Back and Enjoy ...

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 11:05:07 -0800

Forward Movement - By Jules Crittenden - Nov. 16 (News Report) - If Pelosi and Murtha lose, and Steny Hoyer wins, that will mean ... Pelosi has lost. Not a great kickoff to the speakership that a lot of people seem to assume is her license to lead President Bush around by the nose. Then, we get to see if Bush is adept enough to exploit the gap. Hoyer, while his backers include Out of Iraqis, has at least publicly recognized an unprincipled and precipitous withdrawal would be a "disaster."

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