By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  June 23rd at 11:00 AM  | 

In an apparent effort to save face via the provision of ex post facto permission, the U.S. Senate is considering a bipartisan resolution that would authorize Obama to continue prosecuting his war in Libya for up to a year, albeit with a specific prohibition against the employment of ground troops.  The sponsors  of this resolution are, as may be expected, John McCain (R-AZ) and John | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  June 22nd at 10:35 PM  | 

Shortly after taking office in 2009, President Obama declared that a new strategy was forthcoming for the Afghan war.  Over six months later, after weeks and weeks and weeks of “thoughtful deliberation” (and a few dozen rounds of golf), Obama used an awkward 45-minute appearance at West Point to boldly announce…that he was going to implement what amounted to the same strategy that President Bush | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  June 22nd at 12:00 PM  | 

Last week, at House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) request, the Obama administration provided a brief (32 pages plus classified addenda) overview of its activities in Libya, its conversations with Congress about them, and its rationale for not needing Congressional approval to continue this war ad infinitem.  The full document (minus the classified annexes) is available here in pdf form.  Here are a few highlights. 1. | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  May 26th at 05:30 PM  | 

For years now, the American people have been treated to a single response from Democrat lawmakers and executives when it comes to reforming our bloated, foundering retirement programs: There Is No Crisis. That’s been the mantra of Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and many other Democrats since George W. Bush attempted to stave off the collapse of the taxpayer-funded retiree safety net – the | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  May 26th at 04:30 PM  | 

Let me begin with a moment of candor: I’d honestly be surprised if a majority of the American people even know that America is at war in Libya. I’d be far more surprised if any significant number of Americans know that our self-declared unitary executive has disregarded his legal requirement to secure approval from Congress in order to continue his war beyond the already-passed 60 | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  May 24th at 04:00 PM  | 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to a joint session of the U.S. Congress for the second time today (and for the first time in fifteen years), fresh off a meeting with President Obama on Friday, Obama’s Middle Eastern address Thursday, and dueling weekend speeches between the two leaders at AIPAC. The first few minutes were well-used defining the scope of the current fight against | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  May 20th at 01:36 PM  | 

As may have been expected, President Obama’s decision yesterday to become the first American president to directly and overtly declare that Israel must withdraw to its 1949 borders was met with negative reactions both at home and abroad – particularly within the state of Israel, over 300,000 of whose residents currently live in the territories Obama demanded that the Jewish state cede to a future | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  May 19th at 05:30 PM  | 

President Obama addressed the nation – nay, the WORLD! – today on the subject of the “Arab Spring” events in the Middle East and North Africa, on the death of Osama bin Laden (has it yet been mentioned what a GutsyCall™ that was on Obama’s part?), and, above all, on the Israel-Palestine “peace process” that in reality is no such thing. In his remarks on | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  May 18th at 05:00 PM  | 

Amid Sunday‘s ‘Nabka Day’ violence on Israel’s Lebanese and Syrian borders, as well as within the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Hamas-controlled Gaza, commemorated the 63rd anniversary of Israel’s re-formation by declaring before a reported crowd of 10,000 at Gaza City mosque that “Palestinians mark the occasion this year with great hope of bringing to an end the | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  May 15th at 05:08 PM  | 

“Nabka Day” 2011 represents two major milestones: (1) the 63rd anniversary of the creation of the modern state of Israel by UN resolution, and (2) very close to the 63rd straight year of the UN doing everything it can to make up for its half-century-plus-old “mistake.”  Sunday May 15, 2011 also represents the first anniversary of Israel’s establishment since the events of the “Arab Spring” | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  May 13th at 05:13 PM  | 

This month’s successful kill/capture mission in Abbottabad, Pakistan, which resulted in the death of the World’s Most Wanted Terrorist and in the recovery of a treasure trove of intelligence (and of pornography – gotta love those radical fundamentalists’ aversion to hypocrisy!) has naturally increased national and media interest in the elite special operations professionals who carried out this operation. While the information being reported by | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  April 7th at 10:00 AM  | 

The same media and Democrat communications apparati (but I repeat myself) that have been claiming that the Republican-proposed budget would kill 700,000 children are now wringing their hands about a looming “government shutdown,” which we may assume would be fictively responsible for an astronomically higher number of deaths than a federal budget that spends 98.4% of what was spent the previous year. If passing a | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  April 1st at 05:00 PM  | 

On the heels of the Obama administration’s declaration of its readiness to go to war Kinetic Military Action on both sides of the Libyan civil war comes a report that the rebels have requested a cease-fire from the Qaddafi government.  According to Bloomberg: Libyan rebels called for a cease- fire as forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi drove them back for a third day after sandstorms | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  April 1st at 02:00 PM  | 

Let me begin by saying, though the date on this post is 4/1/2011, this is not an April Fool’s gag – it’s real. I. Fresh off claiming victory not over Qaddafi, but over responsibility itself, with its touted handoff of the war kinetic military effort to itself-under-different-name, the Obama administration is now swinging the guns around on those on whose behalf we have, until now, | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  April 1st at 10:15 AM  | 

For Installment II in our very occasional “Tale of the Tape” series (click here for Installment I), here’s a quick, down-and-dirty comparison of the two wars to date. But first, this video really sums all of this up better than I ever could: Tale of the Tape: . Iraq Libya Name of Operation Operation Iraqi Freedom Operation Odyssey Dawn (Changed to “Operation Unified Protector” once | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  March 30th at 02:00 PM  | 

For today’s open thread, here’s John Stewart breaking down President Obama’s very angry Monday address on the Libya Kinetic Military Action. h/t to Dan McLaughlin for the title

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  March 30th at 11:51 AM  | 

In Barack Obama’s Monday night address on Libya, which took place well over a week after he began waging offensive war on Libya, the president touted the fact that the U.S. military, which had been responsible or the vast majority of military action to that point, would soon be handing off the mission to allies and, apparently, fading into the background to let those allies | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  March 29th at 02:30 PM  | 

Courtesy of The Cold Equations, here is a handy cheat sheet for dictatorial longevity. Country Prior relations with the US Nuclear weapons program US treatment of country Status of leader Egypt Allied Not significant Pressured ally to step down Permanent vacation Libya Moderately warm lately, despite past difficulties Abandoned under US pressure Bombs away Probably on his way out Syria Strained to hostile Not a | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  March 29th at 11:00 AM  | 

Dan Nexon has pretty effectively summed up the “Obama Doctrine” as the “Humanitarian-intervention-against-militarily-weak-fossil-fuel-producing-countries-in-strategically-important-regions-that-are-also-located-near-many-large-NATO-military-bases-and-are-run-by-dictators-who-kind-of-piss-us-off-and-have-no-powerful-allies Doctrine.” That seems to sum it up pretty well. The only thing I’d add is that it also includes both parts of Obama’s key campaign refrains, Hope and Change.  As in, we’re going to hope that change comes to Libya in the form of a new, non-Qaddafi government; we’re going to hope | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  March 28th at 09:38 PM  | 

You might have heard that President Obama (finally) gave a speech about the shelling of Libya he ordered well over a week ago. Or, you might not have; he’s been trying pretty hard to keep our involvement in it out of the public eye, despite the US having the leading role in every phase of this “kinetic military action” except (1) decision-making, and (2) actually | Read More »