Baghdad’s literary elite took to the streets on Friday to protest a government order shutting one of the city’s few places where people can drink liquor freely, striking a blow to the alcohol-inspired conviviality poets and artists so value. But drinkers face a much more fundamental threat to their freedom to imbibe, as the city’s Christians free. (more)
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday. As the nation was being torn apart by Civil War, Lincoln was able to see the value of a day that celebrates our togetherness and invites us to think about the things we are thankful for. Our country has a number of great traditions and Thanksgiving is one that brings American families together each year. (more)
Thanksgiving celebrations have special significance to Americans. For one day in November family, food, faith, and football bring us together in a spirit of gratitude unlike anywhere else in the world. Americans thankfully remember God had a hand in the hearts of those who first ventured to our eastern shores seeking simple freedoms we now take for granted. (more)
The media have it wrong. According to the media, the big news out of the NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal, is the 2014 withdrawal date from Afghanistan. (more)
During the darkest days of al-Qaeda/Baathist terror and sectarian violence in Iraq in 2006-2007, the American and European media were replete with predictions that the country was sliding into a full-fledged civil war or indeed had already done so. Supposedly scientific studies, like the 2006 Lancet study estimating that some 650,000 Iraqis had died as a consequence of the American-led intervention, fueled such speculation and even gave rise to accusations that the Bush administration and the American military were somehow responsible, whether directly or indirectly, for “genocide.” (more)
BAGHDAD (AP) — The international face of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Tariq Aziz, was sentenced to death by hanging Tuesday for persecuting Shiites just over three months after the Americans transferred him to Iraqi government custody. (more)
Two top California legislators are coming under fire after new evidence has emerged that they helped a group of radical antiwar activists cross the Iraqi-Jordanian border in order to deliver aid to families of enemy insurgents in the war-ridden Iraqi city of Fallujah. In December 2004, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D) each sent letters of diplomatic courtesy to the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, requesting assistance for members of the radical group Global Exchange and the antiwar group Palisadians for Peace. (more)
Robert Gates, possibly the best secretary of defense in our nation’s history, may leave office next year bequeathing not only legacy but legend. Assuming of course that he survives. Already famed for taking on the Pentagon’s stud ducks, he has now touched the dreaded third rail of American politics: military manpower. Wednesday, in a speech at Duke University, he suggested that there is a widening gap between American society and the military that protects it. The reason: at elite colleges like Duke, military service is as rare as a Republican on the faculty. Our best and brightest are sent there to be educated by the ungodly and the politically correct: our wars are fought by Other People’s Kids. (more)
When world leaders arrived in New York last week for meetings on the Millennium Development Goals at the United Nations, the President said that our “national security strategy recognizes development as not only a moral imperative, but a strategic and economic imperative.” Those of us with military backgrounds agree. (more)
Despite its contentious history, most American voters appear to have made a positive judgment about the country's efforts in Iraq. Almost six in 10 (58 percent) voters think, overall, the United States “did the right thing” by going to war, according to the latest Fox News poll. (more)
This was supposed to be a victory speech. But President Obama had little to celebrate and it showed. Paraphrasing Churchill, this was an ambivalent speech with much to be ambivalent about. The president spoke of transition, rather than victory or peace. He said an important “milestone” had been reached with the end of America’s combat mission in Iraq. It was time “to turn the page,” he said, barely suppressing his relief at being able to do so. (more)
In his prime-time address last night, President Obama wisely avoided many of the pitfalls that tripped up his predecessor. He did not declare victory under a “mission accomplished” banner or claim that a fully-flowered democracy had been created in Iraq. Rather, he expressed his hope that violence comes down, that Iraqi politicians will reconcile their differences, and that Iraq may someday be capable of defending itself. (more)
Sunni fighter Abu Mujahid lost a leg battling U.S. Marines in the Iraqi city of Falluja, scene of some of the fiercest battles of the Iraq war. (more)
Now that the final brigade of American “combat troops” has left Iraq, analysts who supported the initial attack on the Middle Eastern country told The Daily Caller that it is still too early to tell whether the military campaign they argued for has been a success, but said they were “pleasantly surprised” by the outcome to date. (more)
Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) — Plans to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq to 50,000 by the end of this month are on schedule, according to a prepared speech President Obama is scheduled to deliver Monday. (more)
BAGHDAD (AP) — A sandstorm downed an Iraqi military helicopter Wednesday, killing its five-man crew, while midmorning Baghdad bombings claimed the lives of six people, officials said. (more)
There’s not a single black Republican in Congress today, but Allen West could change that if he wins his election this November. The Sarah Palin-backed veteran running for Florida’s 22nd House district says, however, that this fact is not very important. (more)
BAGHDAD — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. landed here on Saturday evening for a visit that signaled a desire by the United States to step deeper into a four-month political stalemate that has become a backdrop to the drawdown of American forces this summer. (more)
NEAR TULUL AL-BAQ, Iraq — President Obama has set an August deadline for the end of the combat mission in Iraq. Here at this makeshift desert camp in the insurgent badlands of northern Iraq, a mission is under way that is not going to stop then: American soldiers hunting terrorists and covertly watching an Iraqi checkpoint staffed by police officers whom the soldiers say they do not trust. (more)
After months of interruptions, the high court in Iraq finally certified the March election results thereby removing another barrier as the road to forming a government proceeds. The results stand with former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi in the lead with 91 seats and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a close second garnering 89 seats. The political jockeying will begin in earnest. There’s talk of weeks and months until the Iraqi people see that day. (more)
