One of the more painful dynamics on the ground in Iraq is that U.S. troops frequently have no way of knowing whether the Iraqi carrying an AK-47 is an insurgent, a terrorist, a member of a hostile militia, or a member of an aligned militia. The results are frequently deadly. When U.S. sentries fatally shot […]
To borrow a line from Atrios, why is David Brody on my TV? Yesterday’s Meet the Press panel reminded me of a children’s game: One of these things is not like the other. Five media figures sat around the table: Tim Russert, the NBC News bureau chief; David Broder, a Washington Post veteran journalist sometimes […]
There was a striking exchange on Meet the Press yesterday between Tim Russert and Ted Koppel about Rudy Giuliani’s strength as a presidential candidate. It was one of those discussions that we’ll want to hold on to as the campaign progresses. Russert had just finished noting that, as mayor, Giuliani was a staunch opponent of […]
For all its dissembling, the White House has actually been fairly clear about the purpose of Bush’s “surge” policy — more U.S. troops would lessen the daily violence in Iraq, which would in turn offer Iraqi political leaders some “breathing room” to achieve reconciliation. From there, sectarian conflicts would ease, and some semblance of stability […]