Gian Gentile, a retired Army Colonel who served in Iraq, points out that Iraq was a failure in nation building and we could have exited Afghanistan in 2002 with pretty much the same result:
Yet, even with all this evidence that nation-building operations conducted at gunpoint don't turn out well, some policymakers hold fast to the idea that these kinds of operations are crucial, arguing that we have achieved many of our goals in Iraq and Afghanistan. The purveyors of this notion are deeply attached to a narrative that emerged from analysis of the Vietnam War and took hold during this past decade of American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This story holds that nation-building wars in foreign lands can be won, as long as the hide-bound conventional armies that fight them then transform themselves, led by "savior generals," into nation-builders. This is the view embraced by popular historian Victor Davis Hanson, who has argued that by the end of 2006, it appeared the war in Iraq was lost, only to be saved by the "maverick savior general, David Petraeus."
Considering the current conditions in Iraq, it is hard to take Hanson seriously. But the narrative is important because it continues to be deployed to convince people that American wars in the troubled spots of the world can be made to work as long as the U.S. military tweaks its tactics under the tutelage of generals like Petraeus.
Gentile's observations are pretty much conventional wisdom among the dirty hippies, but when a war veteran says them, too, at least a few more very serious people will listen.
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Arizona Republicans Already Working On 2020 Gerrymander Plan
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You might think that after all the foofaraw and fuck-tussling over the birth certificate of Barack Hussein Obama, there's no way in hell that the birther crowd would ever support a candidate who was indisputably born in a totally different country that is not the U.S.A., right?
Don't be silly. Birthers are coming forward to say they just can't get enough of Ted Cruz, who was born in Calgary, British Columbia Alberta, Canada [Doktor Zoom sucks at geography. This would worry him if "Canada" were a real country] — even though there are like three different countries named right there. But birthers are saying, nahh, man, it's OK, because even though his father was a Cuban citizen, his mom was an American citizen, so it's cool, he's totes American. It's a totally different case from that of the Kenyan Usurper, whose father was Kenyan and whose mother was an American citizen, because Ted Cruz never lived in Indonesia or ate a dog or something argle bargle beagle. READ MORE »
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Pat Buchanan is a really big fan of Russia's anti-gay law. I'm sure you're appropriately surprised. - See more at: http://gripernews.blogspot.com/#sthash.tMioqA6O.dpuf
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Remember Pres. Obama's promise to review NSA domestic surveillance? Yeah, that turned out to be a joke.
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6 Ways Rabid Republicans Are Declaring War On America
Apparently it took a serial rapist to convince the Norfolk Police Department that classifying rape allegations as invalid by default is a very bad idea.
According to the Virginian-Pilot, a 22-year-old woman's case prompted Norfolk police chief Mike Goldsmith to update the policy so that officers must now assume rape victims are telling the truth.
The woman reported the attack immediately to police, only to be told, "If we find out that you're lying, this will be a felony charge." Before giving her a medical examination, officers subjected the woman to interrogations during which they said things like, "You're telling us a different story than you told … the other detectives," and "This only happened hours ago. Why can't you remember?" Having had enough, the woman cut off the interview.
The police eventually arrested and charged the attacker for multiple other sexual assaults and felonies, and Goldsmith apologized for mishandling the woman's initial allegations.
Unfortunately, the Norfolk Police Department is not alone today as the University of Southern California stands accused of mislabeling sexual assaults to keep their statistics lower.
Mostov joined with several other USC students in filing a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education against the university over the weekend, alleging violations of the Clery Act, a federal law mandating accurate and timely reporting of crime on campus, including sexual violence. Mostov said she believes her case shows USC's routine failures in responding to sexual assaults and reporting the crimes.
USC is "persistently underreporting sexual battery, sexual assault, and rape in the Annual Clery Security Report by … categorizing instances of 'rape' as 'personal injury,' 'domestic dispute,' and other less serious crimes or non-crimes," the complaint says.
And according to congressman Steve King, this pristine, non-violent civilization of ours will be spoiled if we allow immigrants into the country.
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There are so many stories in the news today about guns being accidentally discharged and wounding or killing someone, there's no way I could share them all, but here's a few that caught my attention.
First we have a man shot in the ass by his 3-year-old child.
A man who was target shooting south of Green Valley was shot in the buttocks by his 3-year-old son Monday.
The man, 36, was target shooting in a desert area southeast of Interstate 19, near the Canoa Road exit shortly before 6:30 p.m., said Tom Louis, battalion chief for the Green Valley Fire District. [...]
No information was released about how the child got a hold of the rifle.
We also have a gun safety instructor who shot one of his students in gun safety class. Whoops?
LANCASTER, Ohio — A firearms instructor accidentally shot a student while teaching a gun-safety class on Saturday in Fairfield County to people seeking permits to carry concealed weapons. [...]
Dunlap apparently didn't know that the gun was loaded, Piemonte said — "That's my guess."
The bullet was slowed down by hitting the desk first. It then ricocheted into Piemonte's right arm between his elbow and armpit, he said.
A man in Arizona was killed by his wife as she was handing an inexplicably-loaded shotgun to him.
PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. (AP) – A Prescott Valley man is dead as a result of what police say was an apparently accidental shooting involving a shotgun being handled by his wife.
Police say 56-year-old Gary Wingate was fatally wounded in the torso when the gun discharged as his wife handed it to him at his request.
And in Seattle, a passenger shot a bus driver for asking him to pay his fare.
SEATTLE (AP) — When a 64-year-old transit bus driver saw three people board at the rear of his bus during the Monday morning rush hour in downtown Seattle, he asked them to come up front to pay.
Two did. The third passenger paced back and forth, then hit the driver and shot him twice before running away, acting Seattle Police Chief Jim Pugel said.
The good news is brave men are willing to carry their guns into Starbucks to stand up for your right to accidentally, or purposely, shoot your father, wife, husband, students, or bus driver.
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And you thought Anthony Weiner had a 'previous indiscretions' problem…
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah teenager arrested last year in a Columbine-inspired plot to blow up his high school was eliminated in the race Tuesday for mayor of a small Utah city.
Results released by officials Tuesday evening showed 18-year-old Joshua Kyler Hoggan received less than 5 percent of the vote in the primary, preventing him from moving on as a general election candidate on the ballot in the Roy, Utah, mayoral race…
"People should trust me because I have proven one thing: That I am human," Hoggan said in an email before the election to The Associated Press. "I have made mistakes, just like the rest of us. We've all made mistakes in our pasts, and I am no exception."
Hoggan pleaded guilty in 2012 to possession of a weapon of mass destruction. Police said that Hoggan, then 16, and an older classmate at Roy High School spent months plotting an attack inspired by the 1999 Columbine shootings. Hoggan even visited with the Columbine principal about the shootings and security measures.
A classmate tipped authorities to the plot after receiving text messages from Hoggan, who bragged that he planned to steal a plane from a nearby airport. The boy had logged hundreds of hours on a flight simulator program to prepare. His classmate, Dallin Morgan, pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and was given a 105-day jail sentence.
Ritchie, mayor since 2006, said Hoggan had every right to be on the ballot but he questions his motives and whether he's truly rehabilitated. He said many in Roy are still shaken by Hoggan's bombing plan and are perplexed why he's in the race.
"I'm not so sure how sincere he is," said Ritchie, who never met Hoggan. "I think he's in it for the notoriety."…
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