Iran sending drone back to Obama

Gadhafi finally buried

Based on a number of different reports, it seems clear that deposed Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was probably killed by his captors, not by random crossfire in a gun battle with loyalists as some have claimed. That’s not surprising. He was not captured by a disciplined military unit nor by police, but by a gang … Continue reading »

It’s about damn time!

Finally!! All U.S. troops remaining in Iraq, some 39,000, are heading home and will be out of Iraq by December 31. What took so long? Pres. George W. Bush took his eye off the ball in Afghanistan and our search for Osama bin Laden and sent troops into Iraq in 2003, supposedly because Saddam Hussein … Continue reading »

Gadhafi’s dead, turn on the oil

The Libyan rebels caught and killed Moammar Gadhafi today. I was surprised to hear it only because I had assumed that by now he’d fled the country, possibly with a big pile of those missing shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles. Since he opted to stay in Libya as he’d sworn he would, his capture and death were … Continue reading »

Ransom is ransom

Two American hikers held in Iran for the last two years are back on American soil today, but I’m still asking myself why, with the entire globe available to them, they chose to go hiking along the Iran-Iraq border in the first place. At the very least, it was incredibly stupid. And now that the … Continue reading »

Thoughts on Irene

I’ve had the TV on all day, tuned to CNN, watching the news and worrying about everyone on the East Coast. Specifically, I worry about those few individuals I know there. I keep reminding myself that these folks will undoubtedly be listening to their local officials, not CNN news hounds, and will have the best, … Continue reading »

Run, Gadhafi, run

Moammar Gadhafi is probably not a happy camper today. Nobody seems to know where he is, but we know for sure he’s on the run, hiding, probably trying to get out of Libya. It’s one thing, when you’re in power and in control, to announce to the world that you will never leave your country, … Continue reading »

Here we go again

President Obama said today Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad, must go. Al-Assad is killing his own citizens. He’s violating human rights. There’s a humanitarian crisis in progress. Yes, and as a matter of fact,  it’s been going on for months. And belatedly, finally, our president has joined European leaders and NATO in demanding al-Assad step down. … Continue reading »

Bin Laden is dead and lots of people are happy

The news came this evening: Osama bin Laden was killed today in Pakistan in a U.S. special ops raid. And while the media are going bonkers and crowds are cheering outside the White House, I’m sitting here not feeling much of anything one way or the other. It’s been almost 10 years since 9/11. I’d … Continue reading »

War is not healthy for children

I’m usually insulated from the news on weekends because there’s always something else going on. So I was caught completely off guard when I clicked on the MSNBC website a short time ago and saw this headline: Gadhafi’s youngest son, grandkids killed in NATO attack Gadhafi’s name scarcely registered as I saw “son, grandkids killed.” … Continue reading »

Predictable consequences

Reportedly as many as 20 U.N. workers were killed today in Afghanistan during a protest turned violent, and at least two of the dead were beheaded. Demonstrators were protesting the March 20 burning of a Koran by controversial Gainesville, Fla., preacher Terry Jones. Jones had threatened to burn Korans last September 11 to mark the … Continue reading »

Nothing he said

Last night President Obama tried mightily, in the loftiest of terms, to defend U.S. involvement in Libya. Yet the soaring ideals he espoused seemed no more applicable to Libya than to any other nation facing a rebellion. His reasoning seemed to justify intervention whenever someone violates not our security, not our economic interests, but our … Continue reading »

Nothing he can say

President Obama will address the nation tomorrow night to explain U.S. involvement in Libya. Or at least, attempt to explain. How many times has he already tried to explain — first why he was keeping us out of Libya, then why we were going in.  It made sense for us to stay out and let … Continue reading »

Leave Libya to the U.N.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has explained clearly that establishing a no-fly zone over Libya means bombing Libyan air defenses. Enforcing a no-fly zone could also mean bombing airfields and/or shooting down Libyan aircraft. That’s war, folks. Bombing another country is tantamount to declaring war. The US doesn’t need and cannot afford another war. Remember Afghanistan? … Continue reading »

Nine years in Afghanistan is too long

Today is the 9th anniversary of the beginning of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Nine years of spending U.S. blood and treasure in an unwinnable war. 1,200 American lives have been lost. We should pause today to remember those men and women for their service. They didn’t choose this war; our leaders did. And those … Continue reading »

Attacking America

In today’s Washington Post, Ted Koppell writes convincingly that it’s time we stop playing into bin Laden’s hands. We have, in so many ways, exceeded what would have been an appropriate response to the 9/11 terror attacks. And nine years later, we continue to do so. A group of terrorists based in Afghanistan managed to … Continue reading »

Michael Steele: So wrong and yet so right

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele put his foot in his mouth last week at a fundraiser in Connecticut. He was caught on video making some oddly contradictory comments: “Keep in mind again, for our federal candidates, this was a war of Obama’s choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted … Continue reading »

Helen Thomas: Gone in 60 seconds

Helen Thomas made my jaw drop with her recent comment that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go back to Poland and Germany. Her bias in favor of Palestinians has never bothered me because I tend to agree that Israelis are running roughshod over the West Bank and Gaza. And while I’ve … Continue reading »

June 1 brain dump

Lots of stuff going on in the world, almost everywhere but here. * * * BP today is going to be cutting off and removing the collapsed, kinked riser pipe from its leaking well in preparation for the installation of a cap on the blowout preventer, which should significantly reduce the amount of oil escaping … Continue reading »

Leave Afghanistan to the warlords

I doubt there’s anything President Obama can say tonight to convince me we should be sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. We went into Afghanistan to get Bin Laden. We screwed up and he got away. End of story. There’s no further reason for us to be there unless Bin Laden is sighted. If a … Continue reading »