According to The Washington Post the Dora market, one of Baghdad’s largest, and by pre-war standards had over 850 thriving shops, many opened till midnight. Last December Dora was a war-zone for Sunni, Shia and al Qaeda. Now with the help of the surge and setting up numerous barricades known as “gated,” the number of shops are on the rise as much as 300. Because this was Petraeus’ show piece, the military has been handing out to shopkeepers $2500 incentives each to open up for business. Most o...

If Eisenhower could end hostilities in Korea then why can it not be done in Iraq? General Petraeus should use the surge as an ultimatum to end hostilities among insurgents, both Sunni and Shia and demand an emergency consortium to negotiate a truce with the stipulation that Qaeda forces be denounced as unwelcome intruders and condemnation of any Iraqi or sub cell that coöperates with terrorists. It is expected that insurgents inform on Qaeda leaders and camps in order that a special force consis...

I have been accused many times by some radical JoeUsers for not supporting our troops or for that matter even respecting them even though the bloggers knew I was a WWII Marine, which, however, was no excuse for not “supporting” our fighting men and women. In fact that in itself was all the more reason for supporting them. The problem here is in the semantics of support: it either means let the troops alone to do their job; or question the value of what they are supporting, along with the strat...

 What’s the point of all these politicians going on junket tours at taxpayers’ expense other than for boasting rights that they are concerned for our troops. How many boring statements have you heard proudly announcing their third, fifth, eighth, or fourteenth trip simply to tell us it’s going well or badly? Warner returns concluding that a paltry sum of troops should be home for Christmas. Biden comes up with a partition plan and pushing for it time and time again. McCain has had a lovely ...

Why do “you people” on the right seem most of the time when arguing the current war to reference ancient history—WWII, Korea and Vietnam—to justify staying the course in Iraq? It goes without saying that troops still in Germany and Okinawa that had been there to protect the West from Soviet menace in Eastern Europe, and from China and Soviet designs on the Pacific rim, but now no longer serve a useful purpose and should be withdrawn but for those as a contingency of NATO inasmuch as the threa...

That a nation bred out of Diaspora would deny refugees entry to their land is ironic. Considering Israel’s paranoia of its predominately European make up becoming a minority particularly with the ominous pressure of Palestinian’s “right of return,” in addition to being a very small country, it is understandable despite the besmirched image. Nonetheless, Israel is allowing 500 from Darfur while deciding to expel 1200 to Egypt, but so far only 48 as Egypt is not keen on the idea, having already 2 ...

Forget about military and political shortcomings; perhaps more important is that only ten Iraqi factories are functioning minimally while the other 190 are still dysfunctional. Obviously this gaping hole contributes to the 70% unemployment, leaving millions to get sucked into the malcontent insurgency. This is in face of millions of American dollars spent on startup funds to industries, not to mention billions of occupation dollars for infrastructure with barely a spark at the end of the tunnel....

Bush’s equation of Iraq and Vietnam was only for the enhancement of the image of the chaotic exodus of the final days of the latter and thereby run fear through America of an inevitable slaughter in Iraq as in any civil strife. This is purely non-sequitur, for in Vietnam the chaos stemmed from thousands of South Vietnamese who feared for their lives under communist rule, and not the withdrawal of our troops which had not been abrupt but had steadily progressed over years. The military strateg...

Democrats should desist from urging the closing of Guantanamo Bay prison and as an alternative propose intensified international organizations to assess conditions there and perhaps suggest more humane conditions along—in the spirit of Nuremberg trials—with prison rights to habeas corpus and right of military or Arab-speaking counsel for swift, but fair military court hearings for alleged violent terrorists. For those cases not clearly involved in violent terrorism should be given civilian trial...

Admittedly Move On went over the top with the use of “Betray us,” which is as bad as Senator Joe McCarthy's utterance to a respected General, “Sir, you are unfit to wear the uniform.” However, it is fair to say that under the orders of his Commander in Chief, Petraeus surely did way lay us with charts and statistics on the edge of dishonesty. Taking credit because of the surge in Anbar when the sheiks and marines had the situation in hand before then--that is, till four sheiks were blown...

The argument human activity is causing global warming is rather difficult to deny or accept in a whimsical planet driven by geological time. What is certain is the population and industrial explosion worldwide taxing the natural balancing act of the globe because humans—and there are more of them coming—make greater demands on the planet’s resources and stripping it of sensible and necessary conservation.Back in the ’50s and ’60s California, in particular the major cities, it was blanketed in sm...

It used to be that an Our Father and a Hail Mary would go along way in soothing the conscience by overriding the sin of gluttony. In the early ’60s to rebel against conspicuous consumption one bought a Beetle to flaunt and prick the conscience of the Cadillac driver. But the current lunacy rivals even the Vatican’s dishonor in commercially offering indulgences in the middle ages.This lunacy is in voluntary carbon offsets to counter the gluttonous energy user who guzzles down the planet’s resourc...

A recent Washington Post editorial points out that the 150 th anniversary of Dred Scott decision spurred in Maryland new protests that the chief justice [Taney] who wrote the decision: “… beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations.” Yet Maryland on public grounds has three statues of Taney causing activists to demand removal of these statues at the State House and City Hall. The Post’s view that in spite of this...

You really have to hand it to Hillary’s acumen to be so into the gay thing and still remain straight. Or is it simply Hillary being Hillary, like I’m for the war but against it?

It breaks my heart to see on TV so many beautiful women—Kellyanne Conway and ilk—boasting their Republican positions. ’Tain’t fair! I’m bad on names who are some others?