Stories by Charles Bird
Posted at 11:46am on Jul. 10, 2008 We need more COIN in the Afghan realm
it worked in Iraq, it'll work in afghanistan
By Charles Bird
Mudville Gazette has a good round-up of current events in Iraq, and it looks like the surge strategy is continuing to work. There are several factors now at play: the security situation is improved, al Qaeda is continuing to get shredded, the Mahdi militias are weakened and satisfactory progress has been made on 15 of 18 political benchmarks. Also factoring into the mix is the iniative taken by the al Maliki government. It started in Basra last March, then moved to Sadr City and then on to Mosul. Al Maliki & Co. aren't just being assertive with Shiite militias and al Qaeda, they are being more assertive with the United States in their negotiations for a Status of Forces Agreement. Omar Fadhil has an interesting take on the deal, and so does Dr. iRack:
Lets be clear on one thing: the current Iraqi leadership wants some kind of long-term partnership with the United States, including assurances that we will protect them against foreign invasion, continue to conduct counterterrorism operations, continue to train and support the ISF, continue to help them re-negotiate their debt obligations, etc. All of this is in the November 2007 "Declaration of Principles," signed by Bush and Maliki, which the SFA is meant to codify. What they bristle at--or at least see as a "marketing problem" with the Iraqi people--are the various immunities in the SOFA (for our troops and contractors--the latter of which has apparently been addressed) and prerogatives in the SOFA (such as control of Iraqi airspace, the right for U.S. troops to detain Iraqis, the right to conduct independent U.S. operations, basing rights, etc.). So think of this as a "sovereignty game." The Maliki government wants us to continue to help them with residual support--on their terms.
More below the fold...
Posted in War — Comments (0)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:10pm on May 30, 2008 Obama should meet with Petraeus in Iraq, without preconditions
after all, he did say he would meet with adversaries
By Charles Bird
Within the first weeks after receiving enough delegates to secure the nomination, Barack Obama should go to Iraq and meet with General Petraeus without preconditions. There would be a lot of preparation. The first steps would not be to pre-judge all the items on the list.
More below the fold...
Posted in 2008 — Comments (3)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:32pm on May 27, 2008 The Answer: FARC, Hugo Chavez and Barack Obama
The question: Name a South American terrorist group, its state sponsor, and a foreign policy fool
By Charles Bird
When FARC terrorist leader Raul Reyes was killed and his computer confiscated, Interpol was contacted to ascertain the authenticity of 40,000 files and 610 gigs worth of documents on the hard drive. Here's what The Economist says about it:
They represent only one side of a story, and most of their claims have yet to be independently corroborated. But Interpol has now concluded that the huge cache of e-mails and other documents recovered from the computers of Raúl Reyes, a senior leader of the FARC guerrillas killed in a Colombian bombing raid on his camp in Ecuador on March 1st, are authentic and undoctored. The documents throw new light on the inner workings of the FARC. And they raise some very pointed questions about the ties between Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chávez, and a group considered to be terrorists by the United States and the European Union (EU).
Batches of the documents have been seen by The Economist and several other publications. They appear to show that Mr Chávez offered the FARC up to $300m, and talked of allocating the guerrillas an oil ration which they could sell for profit. They also suggest that Venezuelan army officers helped the FARC to obtain small arms, such as rocket-propelled grenades, and to set up meetings with arms dealers.
Venezuelan officials have dismissed the documents as fabrications. That was contradicted by Ronald Noble, Interpol's secretary-general, who announced in Bogotá on May 15th, after two months of study by a team of 64 foreign experts, that the computer files came from the FARC camp and had not been modified in any way. Mr Chávez called this "ridiculous", questioning the impartiality of Mr Noble, who is American, and labelling him a "gringo policeman". However, in one indication of their accuracy, the documents provided information that in March guided police in Costa Rica to a house where they found $480,000 in cash, as an e-mail suggested.
More below the fold...
Posted in Foreign Affairs — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:32pm on May 26, 2008 About that surge strategy
it's still working
By Charles Bird
There wasn't much coverage of General Petraeus when he appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee last Thursday. Even C-SPAN didn't show it live. Petraeus reported that violence is at a 4-year low and that he will likely reduce troop levels this September after the 45-day pause. His comments were more upbeat than six weeks ago, when the Basra offensive was in full flux, but he is still cautionary about the political situation. Here is what he said about al-Sadr and Basra.
There's more on the success of the Basra offensive and other stuff below the fold.
Posted in War — Comments (11)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:55pm on May 15, 2008 Sex sells, but it doesn't hurt that they're right, too
By Charles Bird
Colombia is a place where the Democrats are stonewalling on free trade, but this one is on George W. Bush. Brazil is another country where we have barriers to trade, specifically the tariff on the importation of ethanol. Roll the tape.
More below the fold...
Posted in Economy — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 5:00pm on May 6, 2008 Still another Obama untruth
the hits just keep coming for the freshman illinois senator
By Charles Bird
Granted, Paul Krugman is a Hillary supporter, but it looks clear to me that Obama's campaign dishonestly used a quote in Krugman's op-ed as it relates to the federal gas tax. Michael Dobbs has an excerpt of the ad. To be fair, he says that both campaigns "have been stretching the facts" on this issue. I've come to expect fact-stretching from the Clintons because it's been a common occurrence ever since 1992 when Bill Clinton trotted out the lie that we had the worst economy in fifty years. But Obama, on the other hand, promised a "new kind of politics", but I guess untruths weren't included in that pledge. Here's the ad:
More below the fold...
Posted in 2008 — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 4:04pm on Apr. 18, 2008 The McClatchy narrative on Iraq
downtalk, downtalk, downtalk
By Charles Bird
McClatchy reporters Jonathan S. Landay and John Walcott wrote yesterday about an Iraq study by a Dr. Joseph Collins of the National War College. The article is technically accurate but misleading because the article doesn't address until paragraph 13 (out of 19 written) the focus of the study, and then gets wrong that "much of the blame for what went wrong in Iraq after the initial U.S. victory at the feet of then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld." The folks at Small Wars Journal read it and the "reporting" raised enough red flags that they contacted the author of the study. Here is Dr. Collins' response:
More below the fold...
Posted in War — Comments (5)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:13pm on Apr. 11, 2008 It's official
The anti free traders have taken over the Democratic Party
By Charles Bird
In comparison to Nancy Pelosi and her decision to shut down any voting on the Colombia free trade agreement, the Bill Clinton administration looks positively beneficent, even to a rock-ribbed Republican. No matter what his wife thinks about it, Bill Clinton made the right decision in going against Democrat-friendly labor unions and members of his own party, taking a free trade agreement that George H.W. Bush started, and passing it. NAFTA has proved to be an economic benefit to all three countries.
Today, the Democratic Party is the Protectionist Party. Hillary and Obama are anti-NAFTA, and they join Speaker Pelosi in being anti free trade with Colombia, a nation that has made significant political, economic and security-related strides since President Uribe was elected. In almost every relevant category, Colombia's progress has been remarkable. A nation that has made such improvements should be rewarded by the United States, not slapped in the face, but that's exactly what our Democratic "leaders" are doing. Here is what Hillary said:
More below the fold...
Posted in Foreign Affairs — Comments (8)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 7:42pm on Apr. 7, 2008 More Obama untruths, more free passes handed out by the mainstream media
at least ten Obama untruths in the last six weeks
By Charles Bird
My last post dealt with seven untruths that have come out of the mouth of Barack Obama. The Economist has found three more:
Very little has been made of two instances, reported last month by the Washington Post, where Mr Obama exaggerated his role in legislative accomplishments. When a bipartisan attempt was made to reform America's immigration policy, Mr Obama claimed to be one of the senators who in 2006 "had to wake up early to try to hammer this stuff out." If it were true, it would've boosted his repuation as a uniter of Republicans and Democrats. But miffed Senate staffers say Mr Obama never attended the critical early morning negotiating sessions where the bill was hammered out. And he played an even smaller role when the issue was re-visited in 2007—after showing up late for a meeting he was even upbraided by Ted Kennedy.
More recently, when referring to housing legislation unveiled this year, Mr Obama called it "the legislation I put forward with my colleague Chris Dodd". Mr Dodd, an Obama supporter, may be too kind to say so, but this simply isn't accurate. Mr Obama backed the measure, as did Mrs Clinton, but he did not author or sponsor the legislation, which is to say he didn't put it forward anymore than Mrs Clinton did.
In yet another instance Mr Obama claimed to have passed a bill on nuclear regulation that never made it out of the Senate.
And Obama is still trotting out the lie that John McCain wants a 100-year war in Iraq. Maybe I'm a little naive, but I thought that one of the primary tasks our media has is to hold politicians' words accountable. Alas. Perhaps, like Chris Matthews, there are thrills going up their legs when they're in his presence. What will it take for them to overcome their bedazzlement and do their jobs?
Posted in 2008 — Comments (3)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:44am on Apr. 4, 2008 How many Obama untruths will it take before the mainstream media will act?
we should start a pool. for hillary, it took about a week for her one whopper
By Charles Bird
On the whole, the mainstream media is so bedazzled with Barack Obama that it won't do its job in holding the Illinois Senator accountable to his words. That job is left to the fact checkers, the blogs and Friends of Hillary and Bill. No wonder Bill Clinton is so angry. Obama's getting away with it and Team Clinton is not. When Obama started his campaign, he promised a new kind of politics, but what we've actually seen--especially in the last month--is a growing pile of old-style untruths. Instead of a new way, we're getting the Chicago way. Let's recap:
More below the fold...