Free Republic

THE moment he pulled the trigger, there was near-universal agreement that President Obama had done the inevitable thing, the right thing and, best of all, the bold thing. But before we get carried away with relief and elation, let’s not forget what we saw in the tense 36 hours that fell between late Monday night, when word spread of Rolling Stone’s blockbuster article, and high noon Wednesday, when Obama MacArthured his general. That frenzied interlude revealed much about the state of Washington, the Afghanistan war and the Obama presidency — little of it cheering and none of it resolved by...

WASHINGTON — Since 2001, a dozen commanders have cycled through the top jobs in Iraq, Afghanistan and the U.S. Central Command, which oversees both wars. Three of those commanders — including the recently dismissed Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal — have been fired or resigned under pressure. History has judged many others harshly, and only two, Gen. David H. Petraeus and Gen. Ray Odierno, are widely praised as having mastered the complex mixture of skills that running America's wars demands. For the military, this record of mediocrity raises a vexing question: What is wrong with the system that produces top generals?

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says he did a full court press for a health care system remake because "this country was going to go bankrupt."

One of the odder political subplots of President Obama's term so far has been his relationship with the tourism-dependent city of Las Vegas. A year ago, Obama irked Nevadans by demanding that corporations not use federal bailout money for trips to Vegas. A couple of weeks ago he infuriated them again by telling a New Hampshire audience to save their cash for college instead of “blowing” it in Vegas. No Nevadans were more annoyed, of course, than the state's Democratic politicians, among them Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who faces an uphill fight for re-election this fall. So now the...