General David Petraeus is set to testify before Congress today, and he’s expected to again try to put a positive spin on a war effort that’s utterly failing to meet the goals set by its backers. While intelligence assessments show that tactical moves on the ground in Afghanistan have failed to fundamentally weaken the growing [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Congress’
Petraeus, McCain Continue Afghanistan War Spin, But No One Buys It (Nor Should They)
Posted: March 15, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Brave New Foundation, civilian casualties, Congress, counterinsurgency, insurgency, McCain, Petraeus, propaganda, Rethink Afghanistan, spin, Taliban
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Love the Afghanistan War in Public at Your Peril
Posted: June 27, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Brave New Foundation, COIN, Congress, counterinsurgency, Newsweek, polling, Rethink Afghanistan
One of the gems buried in Michael Hastings’ now ubiquitous Rolling Stone article is a senior adviser to General McChrystal thanking his lucky stars for public ignorance of the state of the war: Even those closest to McChrystal know that the rising anti-war sentiment at home doesn’t begin to reflect how deeply fucked up things [...]
The Thing About Glenn Beck Is
Posted: March 19, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Congress, Democrats, Glenn Beck, health care reform, healthcare reform, Republicans, Steve King
…no matter how ridiculous he is, some things need a response before one can sleep. Beck and U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) went on a self-righteous rant about the upcoming vote on health care reform legislation this weekend, possibly on Sunday. Here’s the transcript: Speaking on the Glenn Beck show, King said a vote on [...]
A rare opportunity just emerged to kill the supplemental appropriations bill funding operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here’s a quick summary of the politics around the legislation. Here’s a shorter version: items attached to the legislation provoked blocs of Republicans and Democrats into opposition. The White House lobbies hard for this legislation, but if you [...]
But Who’s Counting Anyway?
Posted: September 28, 2008 in UncategorizedTags: Congress, defense, Pentagon
The U.S. Congress continues to burnish its pro-militancy credentials. They just passed a “record” budget for the Pentagon, which included a 6 percent increase from last year, according to the AP. This huge defense bill was, apparently, barely a blip on the Congressional radar: Such a huge bill usually would dominate the end-of-session agenda on [...]
