We've Got More Nerve Than You

U.S. to maintain Iraq force levels - 19 Sep 2006 at 10:34am - WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military will likely maintain the current force levels of more than 140,000 troops in Iraq through next spring, the top US. commander in the Middle East said Tuesday in one of the gloomiest assessments yet of how quickly American forces can be brought home.

Who will be surprised next spring when the top U.S. commander then says it will take another year?

Powell explains terror law views - 19 Sep 2006 at 8:55am - Former secretary of state Colin L. Powell said Monday that he opposes the Bush administration's proposed rules for the treatment of terrorism suspects in part because the plan would add to growing doubts about whether the U.S. adheres to its own moral code.

I don't think Powell's confused about what the administration is asking for: they want Congress to pass a law saying Geneva applies to others, but not to us. That's despicable, but not confusing.

U.S. says AP photog linked to insurgents - 19 Sep 2006 at 10:22am - The Pentagon defended its months-long detention of an Associated Press photographer in Iraq, asserting that it has authority to imprison him indefinitely without charges because it believes he had improper ties to insurgents.

Does that make him an "enemy combatant"?

Sens. want more Iraq report declassified - 19 Sep 2006 at 12:01pm - WASHINGTON -- Senators on an intelligence panel are seeking to declassify more information from two Senate reports on prewar intelligence on Iraq, saying too much was kept secret.



Cheney says hopes of world rest on U.S. - 19 Sep 2006 at 11:29am - WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney cast the global war on terror on Tuesday as a "war of nerves," borrowing a phrase Harry Truman used to describe the Cold War. Cheney asserted that the hopes of the civilized world depend on a U.S. victory.

Is that comment on the so-called war on terror (SCWOT) meant to imply that only the U.S. is fighting terrorism? In any case, any time Cheney speaks, I do get nervous, so victory must be on the way.