Still Fighting

Activism

Tell the Administration to Come Clean. Maybe this seems like a silly exercise to you, as it's pretty obvious that EVERYONE wants the Administration to come clean (well, maybe except Karl Rove and Bob Novak). However, it's not fruitless. We can't just sit back and whine about the lack of forthrightness - we have to demand accountability, and do it vociferously. Online petitions like this do have an effect - if nothing else, they let Democratic leaders know how many people feel passionately about this issue. Hopefully, they'll start getting the message, even if the GOP doesn't.

News

Insurgency seen forcing change in Iraq strategy. Let's not mince words: What this article really says is that we are losing in Iraq, and that's a scary proposition. What's even scarier is that while military experts and officials seem to see that our approach isn't working, it's still not filtering up to the policy-makers. Let's just take a few quotes from the article: "New US government analyses suggest that the insurgents ... have vastly more staying power than previously thought." Or, how about this: "Despite US estimates that it kills or captures between 1,000 and 3,000 insurgents a month, the number of daily attacks is going back up." According to a recent poll, 45% of Iraqis support the insurgency, while only 15% support the US and its diminishing allies. In response to Cheney's absurd "last throes" comment, Michael O'Hanlon, a military specialist at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said "That is the most extreme form of wishful thinking." Oh, if wishes were fishes, or maybe even withdrawal plans...

Adoption Agency Rejects Catholic Parents. There are so many things wrong with this story that it's tough to know where to begin. But let's just begin, well, at the start: "A Christian adoption agency that receives money from Choose Life license plate fees..." So, first of all, it's a shame that license plates have become politicized. Somehow we think that pro-lifers would not be too happy if there were license plates that had pro-choice slogans on them. But aren't license plates distributed by the government? Why should government money go to endorse a specific religion? But, maybe that's a different argument for a different time. What did this particular agency that blurs the line between church and state do? Well, it refuses to allow Catholic couples to adopt children from that agency. It's pretty amazing that Catholics get bent out of shape when they're discriminated against because of their particular beliefs, but then seem to have no problem when non-Christians are discriminated against for theirs. Maybe it'd be easier if the government kept out of this issue all together, and let competing religions duke it out in the private sector, where they belong.

Opium Trade Not Easily Uprooted, Afghanistan Finds. We suppose, if given a choice between al Qaeda and drug dealers, we'd probably opt for the drug dealers, but it'd be a close call. Drug dealers and terrorists are both pretty damaging to a burgeoning country, but at least drug dealers are only interested in money for the most part, not murder. So, if you want to look on the bright side of things, at least al Qaeda is no longer flourishing on Afghanistan - but the opium trade sure is. This is what happens when you have a power vacuum, and when you don't finish the job of rebuilding the country. The U.S. has promised more funds for law enforcement, but so far much of it remains unspent. And in the meantime, corrupt cops in Afghanistan accept bribes to spare certain poppy fields from destruction.

Editorials

The Ghost of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan. To those of us who follow politics day-to-day, the fact that a Bush associate like Rove would have possibly broken the law in order to mislead the public about the Iraq war really doesn't seem the groundbreaking. Most of us realize that the White House has little if any regard for the rule of law, or even commonly held moral standards. Of course, the Rove crisis is taking hold in the press, which is nice. But there's another, possibly even more egregious example of the Bush Administration playing political games with our safety. It seems that around the time of the Democratic National Convention in 2004, the Bush Administration raised the terror alert level and announced the capture of an al-Qaeda operative, for no apparent reason. Well, it turns out that announcement led to the blowing of the cover of the only double agents inside al Qaeda that the British had. Furthermore, it forced the British to move in on some suspects before they were ready, allowing some to escape. One of those suspects was connected to Muhammad Sadique Khan, one of the 7/7 London bombers. If it sounds complex, well it is, but read Juan Cole's article and connect the dots yourself. Basically, here's the gist: Once again, for political means, the Bush Administration sacrificed valuable intelligence that should have been used in the war on terror. And while it's tough to be specific about cause and effect, why take the risk of making such an announcement and giving our enemies more information? Because in this Administration, politics trumps everything, even the safety of our citizens.

Conversion versus Activation. Time for a little meta-blogging. Sometimes, people read Still Fighting, and they just don't understand why we're doing this. We're not trying to present both sides of the issues, something that many people argue would be a more valuable services. They're right; this is clearly a one-sided blog. The answer is that we've picked sides a long time ago. Our interest is not in "converting" people to our side - we'd have to be a whole more objective to do that. No, rather, our interest is in "activation" - we want you, our readers, to feel empowered and motivated after reading Still Fighting. Chris Bowers, at MyDD, explains why these days, activation is so much more important than conversion. So, choir, let's get going!

On defensive about Rove, GOP shoots self in the foot. Sometimes, when you think the GOP can't get any crazier, they go and do something like this. Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid proposed a bill in the Senate that would revoke the security clearance of anyone who leaked classified information. This is not just a canny political maneuver; it's particularly relevant if we want to keep government secrets from being leaked by those who would use them to further their own political causes. But it seems the GOP isn't a big fan of keeping government secrets, and instead proposed a bill designed to attack Reid and Dick Durbin. One minor problem: In their haste to fight back, their bill would not only have revoked the clearances of Reid and Durbin, but multiple Republicans as well. Sometimes, you just have to laugh at these fools, because the only other option would be to cry at the fact that they're running the country.