Soccer Dad

Submitted 08/29/2007

The following are the posts submitted for consideration of the Watcher's Council this week.

In They Don't Understand the Incentives (Updated), The Glittering Eye argues that the Maliki government doesn't serve the interests of regular Iraqi citizens or the United States. What it does serve are the militias and thus it won't take the steps necessary to bring a stable, democratic government to Iraq. It's not in their interests.

Done With Mirrors asks What, Do You Think? and answers that he thinks that folks like Glenn Greenwald are not really anti-imperialists as much as they are anti-militarists.

The Colossus of Rhodey criticizes "Sanctuary" Cities
where federal law is willingly violated by public officials. At the end, though, he sees a ray of light.

Last week one of the non-council entries was The Peace Racket. This week ‘Okie’ on the Lam looks at a companion piece, Victor Davis Hanson -- Why We Must Study War. He uses Hanson's piece as a guide surveying how ignorance of war has led our opinion making elites to oppose the war effort.

In a similar vein Cheat Seeking Missiles considers Lotsa Dead Terrorists! He looks at how opponents of the war have effectively undermined the political support for the war.

Bookworm Room looks fondly back on her high school day in The New Conspiracy Theorists. She compares Naomi Wolf then with Naomi Wolf (and Robert Fisk) now and finds them to be more paranoid than thoughtful, despite what they think of themselves.

Rhymes With Right exposes a Local Blogger, Democrat Leader, Urges Jasper-Style Truck-Drag of Jewish Republican. The tastelessness of many on the left defies belief. I wonder how the NJDC will react. (My guess is silence.)

Joshuapundit's trenchant Iraq As Vietnam... Or Vice Versa reminds us that there's a greater similarity between than just the potential disaster awaiting Iraq if we abandon it as we abandoned South Viet Nam. There are also similarities in the conduct of the war. JoshuaPundit hopes tha the President is aware of both - and plans to fix the prosecution of the war from his end.

In Washington Watch: Another Hypocrite Exposed, The Education Wonks reject Sen Craig's claim that he did nothing illegal.

Covering similar territory to JoshuaPundit, Big Lizards observes NYT: Analogies Are Meaningless (Unless They Favor the Left) Specifically he writes that the NYT wants only liberals to be able to use the analogy between Viet Nam and Iraq.

Right Wing Nut House wonders Jesus, Lord! Are They All Hypocritical Bastards?. While he doesn't doubt that most Christians are not hypocrites, he wonders why such a high percentage of the hypocrites make it to public office.

I wrote about the comparative treatment of the Khalil Gibran school and the Ben Gamla school in the pages of the NYT in Separate but Unequeal . For some reason or the other the former escapes scrutiny that the latter is subject to.

Read. Enjoy. Be informed.

watcher's council.