Not In Your Name
Posted at 6:34pm on Mar. 31, 2008 Damned *straight* it's hard. [Updated and bumped.]
We as a nation are not what you'd call really *comfortable* with the concept, you see.
By Moe Lane
[UPDATE]: Via Hot Air, Outside the Wire imagines the headline story from that particular dystopian timeline. JD Johannes was too polite to include a quote from that alternate's Senator Obama, but I suspect that it'd just be a bit about how this was all clearly George Bush's fault. Senator Barack Obama's very good at finding reasons why nothing is ever his fault, after all.
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Today's quote of the day - "Do you know how hard it is to find any pics of "American surrender" on Google?" - comes to us from the blog Perfunction (and via Instapundit), who made it while reminding us that today would have been the day that, if we had just listened to Senator Barack Obama, we'd have had to have made sure that we were finished up with running away from Iraq like miserable little cowards.
But don't worry, Senator: we know. Not In Your Name.
Not then, not now, not ever.
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Posted at 5:25pm on Feb. 1, 2008 *Dag-gone*, Senator Clinton.
How much did that *cost* you?
By Moe Lane
I mean, we all figured that the Moveon folks would have been able to avoid keeping their membership from endorsing Obama with that 67% cutoff, but 70%? Whoever set that up for you, give him or her a raise; it's earned.
MoveOn endorses Obama
By Klaus Marre
Posted: 02/01/08 12:17 PM [ET]
MoveOn.org announced Friday that it will endorse Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president, adding to the momentum that Obama hopes will carry him past Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).The liberal group, with its 3.2 million members, is expected to provide a boost to the Illinois senator ahead of Super Tuesday. MoveOn said it has 1.7 million members in the states in which voters are going to the polls next week.
[Snip of text attempting to paper over the uncomfortable truth that Moveon.org's principles only activate during Democratic Presidential administrations. Not In Your Names.]
MoveOn voters favored Obama over Clinton by 70 percent to 30 percent.
More here. I'm glad that you're happy for the endorsement, Senator Obama: goofy of you not to be with them at their time of need, but hey, it was just politics, right? You're all one big happy family now: you, Moveon.org, International ANSWER, CodePink...
Hmm. Now that I think of it, I guess that means that you approve of the way that the City of Berkeley's trying to push out the Marines. Isn't that right, o... centrist?
No, I wasn't particularly expecting an answer, either.
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Posted at 10:48am on Jan. 12, 2008 I'm going to go with "crickets" myself, Ed.
Either that, or outright baldfaced lying.
By Moe Lane
The title is response to Ed Morrissey's response to this:
Iraqi lawmakers pass pro-Baath party law
BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament adopted legislation Saturday on the reinstatement of former Baath party supporters to government jobs, a benchmark sought by the United States as a key step toward national reconciliation.
The voting was carried out by a show of hands on each of the law's 30 clauses. The bill, officially called the "Accountability and Justice" law, seeks to relax restrictions on the right of members of Saddam Hussein's now-dissolved Baath party to fill government posts. It is also designed to reinstate thousands of Baathists in government jobs from which they had been dismissed because of their ties to the party.
I have to say: you can knock the AP down, but by Jeebus it'll go down swinging. Characterizing a critical step in the de-Baathification process as being a "pro-Baath party law" is precisely the sort of stubborn rearguard action we've come to expect from the media; a pity that they can't use their powers for good, nu?
Read on.
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Posted at 10:57am on Dec. 20, 2007 Done your Christmas shopping yet, Rep. Moran?
By Moe Lane
A surge of their own: Iraqis take back the streets
Attacks plummet as Shias join Sunnis in neighbourhood patrols to tackle militants and reunite communities
Michael Howard in Baghdad
Thursday December 20, 2007
The Guardian [The GUARDIAN](snip)
Muhammad is one of the thousands of young Baghdadi men to have joined neighbourhood security groups, which have mushroomed over the last year and are a crucial factor in the dramatic decline in civilian deaths. US soldiers call them "concerned local citizens"; Iraqis just call them sahwa (awakening) after the so-called Anbar awakening in western Iraq, which has seen Sunni tribal sheikhs take on foreign-led Islamists.
There are now an estimated 72,000 members in some 300 groups set up in 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces, and the numbers are growing. They are funded, but supposedly not armed, by the US military. "It is Iraq's own surge," said a western diplomat, "and it is certainly making a difference."
Major General Joseph Fil, the outgoing US commander for Baghdad, said this week that the number of attacks in the capital had fallen almost 80% since November 2006, while murders in Baghdad province were down by 90% over the same time period, and vehicle-borne bombs had declined by 70%.
(Via Instapundit; see also Iraqpundit)
Not In Your Name, Rep Moran. Most assuredly, Not In Your Name.
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Posted at 9:30pm on Dec. 13, 2007 The "Concerned Citizen" Phenomenon Takes Hold
Or: "The Iraqis are taking their country back"
By Jeff Emanuel
The Concerned Local Citizens phenomenon in Iraq has continued to grow throughout the year that General Petraeus and his counterinsurgency force have been on the ground in Iraq. At the Long War Journal, the indispensable Bill Roggio has posted a map showing the location and development of these citizens' groups which have mobilized themselves to fight against militias and terrorists for the purpose of protecting their tribe, their city, and their country.
When in the small village of Ja'ara, Iraq (between Baghdad and Salman Pak) this summer, I had the privilege of sitting in on the first meeting between an American officer and a Sunni tribal leader (Auth. note: The empty red chair in the foreground is mine). The prospect of establishing a prototype Concerned Citizens group -- the first ever in the region -- was discussed at that meeting.
That was at the end of August. As you'll see from the information provided at the Long War Journal, what began as the smallest of meetings has now become a literal phenomenon, with over 35,000 concerned local citizens participating just in that small region -- with almost 50% of the groups being combined Sunni and Shi'a.
If there's a term for this besides "unimaginable success," then I don't know what it is.
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Posted at 10:36am on Dec. 5, 2007 The snow sticking where you are, Rep. Emanuel?
By Moe Lane
Power-Sharing Ends Northern Iraq Dispute
By LAUREN FRAYER – 17 hours agoKIRKUK, Iraq (AP) — Sunni Arabs ended a yearlong political boycott Tuesday in Kirkuk — the hub of Iraq's northern oil fields — under a cooperation pact that marked a bold attempt at unity before a planned referendum on control of the strategic region.
The Sunni-Kurdish deal — urged by U.S. diplomats — could also move ahead other reconciliation bids demanded by Washington but stalled by disputes that include sharing oil wealth and compromising with Sunnis who backed Saddam Hussein's Baath party.
(Via Jules Crittenden)
Not In Your Name, Rep Emanuel.
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Posted at 2:08pm on Nov. 30, 2007 Freshen your drink, Senator Kennedy?
By Moe Lane
Sistani tells Shiites to protect Sunni brothers
BAGHDAD, Nov 27 (KUNA) -- Leading Shiite cleric in Iraq Ali Sistani Tuesday banned the killing of Iraqis, particularly the Sunnis, and urged the Shiites to protect their brother Sunnis.
Sistani bans the Iraqi blood in general the blood of Sunnis in particular. His announcement came during a meeting with a delegation from Sunni clerics from southern and northern Iraq.
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Posted at 12:35am on Nov. 29, 2007 I'm glad that we finally cleared up your true loyalties, *Mister* Paul.
By Moe Lane
And now that we have:
6,000 Sunnis join pact with US in Iraq
By LAUREN FRAYERHAWIJA, Iraq - Nearly 6,000 Sunni Arab residents joined a security pact with American forces Wednesday in what U.S. officers described as a critical step in plugging the remaining escape routes for extremists flushed from former strongholds.
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Posted at 9:49am on Nov. 27, 2007 Enjoying the gavel, Senator Webb?
By Moe Lane
"Residents stroll at the Abu Nawas park in Baghdad November 24, 2007. Children played on swings and a band belted out popular folk music to mark the reopening of a famous Baghdad riverside avenue on Saturday, part of government efforts to take advantage of declining violence."
Photo via Reuters, via Bottom Line Up Front, via Gateway Pundit.
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Posted at 4:38pm on Nov. 23, 2007 Happy Thanksgiving, Rep. Murtha.
By Moe Lane
Shiites in S. Iraq Rebuke Tehran
Petition Calls for U.N. Probe Into Iran's Influence, Sheiks Say
By Amit R. Paley and Sudarsan RaghavanBAGHDAD, Nov. 21 -- More than 300,000 Shiite Muslims from southern Iraq have signed a petition condemning Iran for fomenting violence in Iraq, according to a group of sheiks leading the campaign.
"The Iranians, in fact, have taken over all of south Iraq," said a senior tribal leader from the south who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for his life. "Their influence is everywhere."
(H/T: Instapundit)
Not in your name, Representative Murtha*.
Moe Lane
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Posted at 9:00am on Nov. 20, 2007 Good morning, Speaker Pelosi.
By Moe Lane
Baghdad Starts to Exhale as Security Improves
[snip]
The security improvements in most neighborhoods are real. Days now pass without a car bomb, after a high of 44 in the city in February. The number of bodies appearing on Baghdad’s streets has plummeted to about 5 a day, from as many as 35 eight months ago, and suicide bombings across Iraq fell to 16 in October, half the number of last summer and down sharply from a recent peak of 59 in March, the American military says.
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Posted at 3:11am on Nov. 20, 2007 Iraq Is Improving
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
The gaudy orange, green and purple electronic palm trees flashing in the dark alert you that you're getting close to one of Baghdad's bustling nightspots.
The palms, like a mirage, can be seen from way down the darkened streets, lighting up the night and giving a promise of normality in the otherwise bleak and deserted capital, ravaged by four years of insurgency and sectarian strife.
And then, suddenly, you've arrived and the mirage has become an oasis of generator-driven light; a colourful jumble of trendy juice bars, cosy restaurants, fruit shops, roadside eateries and fish vendors, where children play, families dine and lovers meet.
"Even two or three months ago we would have been afraid to come here at night," said 20-year-old Hussein Salah, an off-duty soldier, slurping a milkshake with his wife, Shihad, at the Mishmesha (apricot) juice bar in Baghdad's relatively safe Karrada suburb.
"Now we sometimes sit outside here till one or two in the morning. It is quite safe. The security situation is vastly improved," said Salah, the orange light from a nearby flashing palm alternatively brightening and dimming his clean-shaven face.
Declines in Iraqi civilian casualties and a sharp reduction in bomb and mortar attacks have sparked optimism that the capital is at last starting to revive.
US military commanders attribute the fall in violence to a "surge" of American troops on the ground, their decision to set up small military posts in neighbourhoods, and the increasing number of Iraqis joining US forces in anti-insurgent alliances.
Residents interviewed by AFP on the streets of Karrada were adamant, however, that the Iraqi government and the Iraqi army are entirely responsible for reining in sectarian bloodletting unleashed by the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February 2006.
"We have the Iraqi government to thank for the peace in our neighbourhood," said fishmonger Muqdad Mohammed, 38, smoking "mazguf" (carp) -- a Baghdad delicacy -- netted in the Tigris river on an open fire at a street corner.
-- "Things are normal here" now --
"As you can see, things are normal here. It's after eight o'clock and the streets are still full," he added, pointing to the groups of people, families and even single women wearing headscarves strolling up and down the road.
More here. You know, I happen to think that the surge had a great deal to do with the improvements Baghdad--along with the rest of Iraq--is witnessing and experiencing. But frankly, I don't care who takes the credit so long as the reconstruction effort continues to proceed as successfully as it has over this past year.
Kinda makes you wonder why it is that the "reality-based community" hasn't taken much notice of these improvements. Or why it wants once again to short-circuit them with yet another debate over withdrawal that is destined to fail being planned in Congress.
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