Spreading the War

Nothing good will come of this:

Israeli warplanes bombed unidentified Syrian targets early on Thursday, causing no damage or casualties, the official Syrian news agency said.

Syrian air defenses fired at the incoming planes, which crossed into Syria after midnight local time, the agency said.

"The Syrian Arab Republic warns the government of the Israeli enemy and reserves the right to respond according to what it sees fit," the agency said.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the air strike. Israel has long warned Syria to stop supporting militant Palestinian groups and the Lebanese movement Hezbollah.

Call me paranoid, but this is not entirely unrelated to the right wing's saber rattling over Iran. Someone's looking for an excuse.

We Are So...

For those who think that we can still achieve "victory",

This was obviously apparent to Bush, who arrived in Australia in a chipper mood.

"We're kicking ass," he told Mark Vaile on the tarmac after the Deputy Prime Minister inquired politely of the President's stopover in Iraq en route to Sydney.

Can anybody else see why staying there is a bad idea?

Moose on the Loose

Anita Ovard moved to her small home in this town in the western foothills of the Rocky Mountains because she wanted to see more wildlife. But the view got a little too close when a moose decided to make itself at home in her front room.

Ovard spotted two baby m[ee]se in her yard when she pulled into the driveway Tuesday. She immediately started looking for the mother moose, spotting the massive animal just before it plowed through her storm door and front door.

Thus dawned the never ending battle of moose vs. door.

So Long and Thanks for All the Ice

The Arctic:

The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at a record low, scientists said last night. Experts said they were "stunned" by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as Britain disappearing in the last week alone. So much ice has melted this summer that the north-west passage across the top of Canada is fully navigable, and observers say the north-east passage along Russia's Arctic coast could open later this month. If the increased rate of melting continues, the summertime Arctic could be totally free of ice by 2030.

Leadership from a Candidate

Chris Dodd:

The chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee unveiled legislation on Wednesday that would prohibit mortgage brokers and lenders from steering borrowers to high-cost loans.

The reform measure is meant to curb some of the excesses of the recent housing boom that has soured into a spike of loan delinquencies and foreclosures, according to Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat.

The legislation "will put an end to the practices that have forced thousands of Americans into foreclosure and put thousands more in danger of losing their homes," Dodd, a contender for the Democratic nomination for the presidential election in November 2008, said in a statement.

Dodd said subprime borrowers who won a loan despite their damaged credit have been among the most hard-hit by recent market turmoil. His legislation would require subprime mortgage lenders to hold annual costs like taxes and insurance in escrow and have proof that the borrower has the ability to make payments.

This certainly isn't an end-all-be-all to fix the subprime problem, but it addresses many of the issues and dubious practices surrounding the industry. Lenders shouldn't lend to people who can't pay back those loans for the lenders' short-term gain in posting higher revenues.

It's refreshing to see a candidate - especially one who has the power to - introduce real legislation aimed at fixing a problem, as opposed to only talking about their plan or what they'd do if they were President.

On a meta note, I'm giving up. Enough with trying to blog in serious, academic prose. Contractions it is! ... or maybe that should be "contractions it's!"

I'm not Dead!

Racism.

Funding the Troops

To take a slightly different tack on what Kagro X says, the Democrats keep dropping the ball and falling into Republican frames. There has never been any argument over funding the troops, it has always been about funding Bush's war.

Bush and Republicans have been using this bait and switch since the start of the war. As Atrios put it,

Any criticism of the president's policies is instantly redirected at "the troops." If you praise the military, you're actually praising Bush! If you bash Bush, you're actually bashing the military!

It's quite sick, it's been going on for a long time, and all decent people should find it revolting.

Well, at least I now know what that says about our Very Serious People who keep repeating that line.

Great Success!

Not!!!!

SECURING, STABILIZING, AND REBUILDING IRAQ
Iraqi Government Has Not Met Most Legislative, Security, and Economic Benchmarks

Rinse, Dry, Repeat

Cleansing:

After almost four years of trying to build Iraq's central government in Baghdad, the U.S. has found that what appears to work best in the divided country is just the opposite. So senior military officials are increasingly working to strengthen local players who are bringing some measure of stability to their communities. The new approach bears some striking similarities to the "soft partition" strategy pushed by senior Democrats, and suggests that despite the often bitter debate in Washington on Iraq policy, a broad consensus on how to move ahead in the war-torn country may be forming.

Because there are not enough violent, quarrelling factions in Iraq. All this will serve to do is 1. increase the likelihood of future ethnic cleansing, and 2. further destabilize the region by arming many different factions, thereby effectively punting the inevitable consolidation of control. And how do we know this is going to work?

The sheiks "told me that the kind of bottom-up progress that your efforts are bringing to Anbar is vital to the success and stability of a free Iraq," Mr. Bush told a crowd of about 750 soldiers and Marines. Mr. Bush yesterday suggested that if the local gains the U.S. is making continue to hold it could begin to reduce U.S. troop levels by the end of the year.

Because the sheiks - beneficiaries of such policies - told Bush it would and he believes them. Just like Bush believed we would be greeted in Baghdad with rose petals. Just like Bush believed that Petraeus would succeed because Bush told him that he must. By now we should all have a pretty good sense of how well-aligned Bush's beliefs are with reality.

As for that last line? Forget about it, more punting. The only thing Bush is interesting in doing is handing this mess off to the next Democratic president, to whom he can shift the blame.

On a somewhat related note, I was reading about the First Anglo-Afghan War (good book). There are many apt comparisons to be made between Vietnam and Iraq, and even more so for the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, but the British occupation of Afghanistan seems the most fitting. I cannot get into the details in this post, but learning about it has made me - if possible - more pessimistic about our involvement in Iraq. The best we can do now is leave in the most orderly fashion as soon as possible.

I Am Rubber, You Are Glue

President Bush, appearing confident about sustaining support for his Iraq strategy, met at the Pentagon on Friday with the uniformed leaders of the nation’s armed services and then pointedly accused the war’s opponents of politicizing the debate over what to do next.

“The stakes in Iraq are too high and the consequences too grave for our security here at home to allow politics to harm the mission of our men and women in uniform,” Mr. Bush said in a statement after his meeting with the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines in a briefing room known as the Tank.

Link.