Unqualified Offerings

Am I required to have an opinion on the Peter Arnett business?

Early on, some people were titillated by the “Russian GRU site” perporting to offer inside dope on the Iraq War from contacts in Russian military intelligence. Others pooh-poohed it is likely inauthentic and of dubious accuracy. I figured the scientific thing to do was to wait awhile. Now they’ve got a track record to look […]

From ABC News . . .

No ‘Smoking Gun’
Hit on Ansar Al-Islam Camp Finds No Signs of Chemical Weapons
. . . The site they hit was identified by Secretary of State Colin Powell in his argument for war before the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5 as a base for the radical group Ansar al-Islam. […]

Virginia Postel’s weblog has a new address and a new design. You can link to a specific item by clicking on the “Printer Friendly Version” link. That’s to the good. The font size is too small for these middle-aged eyes, though, and it uses “dark” grey rather than black type for the body text, making […]

Leonard of Unruled has a fascinating piece on the economics of the JDAM.

In which I try to make a case for the “rolling start” (if you believe it really is a rolling start and not just “oops! better send some more troops!”). Tacitus, who is doing some good analysis of the war, notes that the force levels currently in Iraq violate the principle of mass. To wit, […]

Jay Price of McClatchy newspapers interviews refugees and prisoners in a field hospital in South-Central Iraq and gets testimony from the patients about Iraqi paramilitary units’ exploitation of civilians. Excerpt:

Ghaleb, 43, a farmer, said that Iraqi Republican Guard troops sent a note to his home demanding that he report to them. Then, Ghaleb said, he […]

Hesiod thinks the war has about two weeks to go yet.

The reason for that is pretty obvious. We are now absolutely pulverizing Republican Guard units surrounding Baghdad.

We can certainly hope. One assumes that the current airstrikes are taking out some of those T-72s Btuce Rolston was worrying about. If the Republican Guard gets the idea […]

184 pounds, 36 5/8″ waist. No change on the weight from last week, the final number represents an uptick from midweek figures, when the scale reached 182. I wouldn’t be surprised to see another multi-pound drop by next week’s item.
This week’s item might be called “Strike Two for Atkins.” I got my blood tests back, […]

Brendan I. Koerner has a semi-useful article in Slate on the “thumbs-up controversy” in Iraq. The question is whether Iraqi civilians giving the thumbs up to coalition forces mean it in a nice way. In the first week of the war, hawks assumed yes, while certain doves pointed out that “many veteran travelers insist […]

Warren Zevon’s last album is almost done, per Rolling Stone.

I thought I would do the “right winger gives advice to liberals” thing, because they love it so much. There’s a bit of a disagreement between Atrios and Calpundit over the issue of mainstream versus fringe liberals. Calpundit, aiming for a New Republic sort of vibe, complains about “Congressmen who travel to Baghdad to criticize […]

When a site called “Cointelpro Toll” showed up in my referrer logs, I expected something critical and was not disappointed. You can’t beat “More Boneheaded Analysis from Jim Henley” as a subject hedder. He’s responding to my items about the nascent meme of declaring the ordinary Iraqis we came to liberate for their deaths at […]

God knows I disagree with much of what liberal alpha-blogger Atrios has to say. But there’s not one word of this item that doesn’t get a wholehearted “me too.”

Tory dove Matthew Parris argues that the Iraq War scenario may yet prove rosy - he provides some reasons why that might be so - and that, in that case, ” Those who, like me, remain unconvinced of the case for war should prepare for a spell of unfashionability.” Upshot:

How would I reply? I should […]

I listened to a few minutes of the G. Gordon Liddy show this afternoon in the car. Yes, I know, I deserve what I get in that case. A caller talking about “exit strategies” wanted to remind Liddy that, while WWII ended in 1945, West Germany didn’t become (nominally) sovereign again until after the Berlin […]

New Frontiers in Spam

Your name was given to me as someone who might be interested in innovative medical solutions. First, you should know that “penis enlargement” is a myth propagated by unethical operators who prey on the insecure and gullible. And even if it did work, it’s not as if you could display it before […]

Gary Farber sees off Richard Perle. Of course, Perle isn’t exactly gone. He’s resigned from the chairmanship of the Defense Policy Board, but Rumsfeld has asked him to remain a member.

From the Pentagon briefing today:

Q: Mr. Secretary, as you know, there has been some criticism, some by retired senior officers, some by officers on background in this building, who claim that the war plan that is in effect is flawed and our number of troops on the ground is too light, supply lines are too […]

Bruce Rolston of Flit is taking the weekend off. No War Without Bruce Rolston Analysis! is my watchword.

comes from Max Sawicky:

What we have seen here is a endless sequence of rumors whose durations dovetail end to end chronologically. By the time one story is finally put to rest, another has risen to take its place. The upshot is that the public digests a continuous dose of bullshit.

UPDATE: Waxy.org looks at who links […]

Dear Readers: I would appreciate links/pointers to any authoritative, independent accounts of Iraqi use of human shields. By authoritative and independent, I mean not “coalition spokesmen say” but “we saw,” or, especially, “here are the pictures. Thanks.

More on the . . . evolving attitude toward Iraqi civilians from Oliver Willis and Arthur Silber. Arthur, an objectivist, is positively offended at the item from the Ayn Rand Institute, and is in the process of responding in series. Part 1 is here; here’s Part 2 and keep checking the main page for more. […]

MSNBC reports “U.S. forces dig in for the long haul.” Which is probably true. Or maybe there’s a task force coming toward Baghdad from Jordan on a flanking maneuver right now, or maybe the 101st Airborne, part of it anyway, isn’t heading up the highway to join the 3rd Infantry at all - or maybe […]

Al Jazeerah is not Al Jazeera, the famous satellite network. How can you tell? For one thing, you can actually reach the Al Jazeerah website. (I don’t recommend that you do - it’s creepy.) You can’t reach Al Jazeera.

The mask is starting to slip, just a little, when it comes to Iraqi civilians. This article from the Ayn Rand Institute is representative of the first stirrings I’m seeing among the more firebreathing hawkish bloggers. From there it should spread to NRO and, in due course, the Pentagon:

Moreover, the objection contains a mistaken assumption: […]

Subject header on e-mail come on from Art Today : “An easy way to manipulate your images.”

Jim, you ask, are there any intervention skeptics out there who haven’t completely lost their sense of humor? Oh indeed, Loyal Reader: Mr. Justin Slotman of the legendary (and legendarily ugly) Insolvent Republic of Blogistan. Musical questions asked, but not answered, include:

Dang it. When all the neocons form a giant robot, what do they call […]