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THE death of Special Air Service soldier Sergeant Matthew Locke on Thursday in Afghanistan is a terrible reminder that there is rarely such a thing as a war without casualties. Sergeant Locke died fighting a barbaric enemy that seeks not just to take Afghanistan back to the dark ages but to use it as a base from which to destroy us. Worryingly, the death of two Australian soldiers in three weeks is not just a tragic coincidence. Things are not going well in the poorly named war on terror. As Frank Furedi writes in Inquirer today, we have been unable...

How’s the war going? It all depends on who’s talking — or writing. Do you go with the doubters-at-a-distance who’ve been saying the war was lost even before it began? Or with the separate but equally sure experts who’ve been assuring us we’re on the verge of victory — for years now. Do we finally admit all is lost when the next IED or car bomb takes its toll? Not just on the ground but in the spirit. It’s tempting. Enough has been more than enough. And yet not enough for Americans to accept defeat. We’ve been here before. In...

The first thing the members of Congress did before they heard the testimony of General David Petraeus, the Administration's new political point man on the war, was to throw the members of Code Pink out of the room. The Code Pinkers are those obnoxious females wearing their eponymously colored T-shirts with end-the-killing slogans on them. The women of Code Pink are liable to pop up at any solemn public gathering demanding peace at the top of their voices. They are unable to understand that elected officials are better informed and wiser than they are and thus they mistakenly dis people...

I have in this column and other places been more than a little critical of what I regard as our misadventure in Iraq. However, I find MoveOn.org’s mischaracterization of General Petraeus’ recent statement as a “betrayal” of the American people to be at best scandalous, at worst simply left-wing propaganda. Bluntly, military officers in our nation are subject to the instruction and command of legitimate civil authority. However, the General’s report was frank and, I believe, sincere — and it was his opinion, after all. I hope he was correct in many of his assessments. Especially that “Iraqi leaders are...

Sunday, September 30, 2007 It's hard to tell what's more depressing. Is it the fact that MoveOn.org puts a full-page ad in The New York Times essentially calling a distinguished U.S. general a traitor? Or is it the fact that Democrats like Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Earl Blumenauer cannot rise above the muck to condemn this vile attack on a uniformed officer? After all, it's one thing for a left-wing outfit like MoveOn.org to accuse Gen. David Petraeus of "cooking the books for the White House" in assessing the success of the surge in Iraq. It's one thing...

Conventional wisdom is hardening around the proposition that Fred Dalton Thompson is too lazy, ill-prepared, tired, old, lackluster, inexperienced, inconsistent and bald to make a successful run for President. Of course, conventional wisdom rarely gets anything right. When it does, it's only by accident. In this case conventional wisdom is not just wrong but comically so. Thompson will win the Republican nomination for two reasons. First, he's a very impressive candidate. Second, there's no realistic alternative. He will win the general election for the same two reasons. Let's start by considering the Thompson's Republican competition. John McCain's candidacy may not...

The MoveOn ad that accused General David Petraeus of possibly traitorous testimony before he even began speaking has alienated the majority of American voters -- and even a plurality among MoveOn's allies believed it harnful to their cause. A new Rasmussen poll shows that 58% of those polled disapprove of the accusatory ad in the New York Times, while only a paltry 23% approve (via Memeorandum): Twenty-three percent (23%) of Americans approve of an ad run in the New York Times “that referred to General Petraeus as General Betray Us.” A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 58% disapproved....

Men at Work, Children at Play September 24, 2007 The Weekly Standard Frederick W. Kagan & William Kristol The telling difference between General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, and their congressional inquisitors. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. --Mark Twain This week, America heard about Iraq from two serious men, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. They understand Iraq in all its complexity. They have an astonishing mastery of the details of what's going on in almost every part of the country and an amazing grasp of virtually every...

In light of Osama bin Ladsen's videotaped message to the West (Or was it a press release from DNC Chairman Howard Dean?), one might be given to muse that liberal abhorrence for the President's surveillance of incoming phone calls from known terrorists might ultimately stem from self-interest. Perhaps they simply do not want to be monitored as they share strategies and talking points with the al-Qaida leader. Furthermore, the DNC may decide to keep a copy of the bin Laden tape, which could come in handy during the 2008 campaign season. Just as aspiring politicians feel compelled to pander in...

General David Petraeus, a four-star army general, began his military career protecting America almost 40 years ago. In January 2007, he became the commander of American forces in Iraq. Under his leadership, he has guided the troops through “the surge.” Thanks in part to a recent New York Times/MoveOn.org newspaper ad, the general has become a political punching bag and his integrity called into question. < > FOX News reports and viewers can decide for themselves about this four-star general.

Hillary Clinton has done the last thing I expected, and she’ll regret it in the end. In a previous column, I predicted that Senator Clinton would have a “Sister Souljah” moment. It would be similar to the politically defining moment that energized her husband’s first presidential campaign. In 1992, Bill Clinton attacked a young female rapper for her thoughtless and socially destructive comments. This sent the message he was a moderate Southerner, not a creature of the far left. I thought Senator Clinton would create a similar episode and send the same message. I was wrong. Last week was her...

Despite the progress that Gen. David Petraeus outlined in his much-awaited report on the surge, critics claim little has been accomplished in the four years since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom.Democratic leaders who have already declared the war lost continue to criticize Iraq's ruling coalition for a lack of political progress. They also cite impatience of the American public as the primary justification for unilateral withdrawal of all efforts to stabilize and secure Iraq. But one must question the arbitrary deadline of September, imposed by Congress just three months after all troops were put in place for the surge....

For many in Washington, the biggest unanswered question from Army. Gen. David Petraeus’ high-profile, low-satisfaction testimony last week was not about military strategy but about political tactics. Why has the anti-war movement been unable to translate the clear public mandate they claim into any clear change in our government’s Iraq policy? To most war opponents, the blame increasingly lies with the Democratic leadership in Congress, for not taking a hard enough line with President Bush and not fighting to cut off war funding. And their frustration is visibly bubbling over — the provocative group Code Pink, for example, has actually...

If there is a phrase more closely associated with both Hillary and Bill Clinton than "the politics of personal destruction," it does not come to mind. All the others -- "It's the economy, stupid," for instance -- belong to one or the other, but "the politics of personal destruction" is a phrase both Clintons have used repeatedly -- so much so, it seems, that for Hillary it has lost all meaning. When, for instance, Gen. David Petraeus was slimed as "General Betray Us," Hillary Clinton looked the other way. This was the politics of personal expediency. The swipe at Petraeus...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2007 – Coalition and Iraqi forces must maintain the momentum generated by the troop surge in Iraq to defeat terrorists and insurgents, a senior military official in Baghdad said today. Army Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, chief of staff for Multinational Corps Iraq, talked about results of the increase of offensive operations made possible by the troop surge. Anderson spoke during a joint conference with Navy Rear Adm. Mark I. Fox, Multinational Force Iraq spokesman. In the wake of Multinational Force Iraq Commander Army Gen. David H. Petraeus’ recommendations to President Bush and testimony before Congress, forces in...

WASHINGTON -- There is no doubt that Gen. David Petraeus won the politically charged slugfest on Capitol Hill last week when he called for the withdrawal of 30,000 troops from Iraq between now and early next year. He won it on his case that, as bad as things are in Iraq, the troop surge of the past six months has made verifiable progress in key battlegrounds now cleansed of terrorists. And he won it by outflanking the Democrats' demands that we begin precipitously pulling all of our forces out now by a specific deadline. There is also no doubt that...

General Petraeus’ testimony on Capitol Hill last week undermined numerous Democratic talking points about the progress of the war and the situation on the ground in Iraq. But through their own behavior before and during the hearings, the Democrats themselves were responsible for exploding one of their most cherished myths: Republicans were the partisans prone to a particularly nasty form of character assassination – that is, challenging the patriotism of those who disagree with them. Democrats have long claimed to be victims of Republican challenges to their love of country. As early as 2003, John Kerry told the Associated Press,...

Muslim terrorist leaders are "thankful" for the efforts of activist and congressional candidate Cindy Sheehan, stating in a new book Sheehan's anti-Iraq war activities and her statements against President Bush "give us hope" the U.S. will change its Mideast policies. "You [Sheehan] give us hope and you show us that there are different Americans than those whom we know," stated Ramadan Adassi, chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group in the West Bank's Anskar Refugee Camp. "This sincere woman says what we've been saying all these last years – Saddam never threatened America or its security. Now Iraq...

He sat absolutely still as members of Congress discussed his credibility and patriotism. His face did not twitch. He did not nod or frown or smile. Not a single muscle moved. He was as impassive as a boot-camp recruit resisting a drill sergeant's provocations. Navigating the political shoals of Washington last week was a challenge unlike any Gen. David Petraeus has faced. At his Senate confirmation hearing in January, he was widely regarded as the quintessential military professional, a credible, independent voice who stood above the political fray. *snip* Partisans tried to portray him either as a politicized officer carrying...

The anger and frustration over Iraq that prompted voters to bounce many Republicans from Congress last November was supposed to give Democrats the momentum they needed to end the war. Instead, 10 months after Election Day, many are conflicted and confused about what to do next. Last week's congressional testimony by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker went better than even their supporters could have expected. Blunders by the left clearly worked in their favor. In a somewhat surprising move, the highly decorated four-star general took the brunt of the fire, leaving the more susceptible Crocker, testifying about the...