Top Items:
New York Times:
The War as We Saw It — VIEWED from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment, the political debate in Washington is indeed surreal. Counterinsurgency is, by definition, a competition between insurgents and counterinsurgents for the control and support of a population.
Discussion:
INTEL DUMP, Balloon Juice, Informed Comment, TIME: Swampland, Prairie Weather and Daniel W. Drezner
RELATED:
Washington Post:
How Rove Directed Federal Assets for GOP Gains — Bush Adviser's Effort to Promote the President and His Allies Was Unprecedented in Its Reach — Thirteen months before President Bush was reelected, chief strategist Karl Rove summoned political appointees from around the government to the Old Executive Office Building.
Atrios / Eschaton:
Is Tom Friedman a Bad Person? — All signs point to "pretty hideous human being, one which all good people should shun."
RELATED:
The Corner:
The Muslim Jesus Cont'd — Some interesting emails for late on a Saturday night. Here are a bunch, but I'll hide most of 'em behind one of those more links: … And: … And: … And, from my Middle East Guy: — Keep reading this post . . .
Discussion:
The Van Der Galiën Gazette
Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post:
A Deadly Clash at Donkey Island — On a Routine Night Patrol Near Ramadi, U.S. Troops Stumble Upon a Camp of Heavily Armed Insurgents Poised to Retake the City — Staff Sgt. Norman Stark had never seen combat. Nor did the 32-year-old soldier from Baltimore expect it …
Mark Steyn / Orange County Register:
Speaking of sanctuary, where's ours? — At the funeral of Iofemi Hightower, her classmate Mecca Ali wore a T-shirt with the slogan: "Tell Me Why They Had To Die." — "They" are Miss Hightower, Dashon Harvey and Terrance Aeriel, three young citizens of Newark, New Jersey …
BREITBART.COM:
Climate protest 'will be contained' — Police were confident of being able to contain the expected climax of the climate camp at Heathrow Airport. — Protesters, buoyed by an influx of new arrivals, promised 24 hours of direct action, starting from midday on Sunday.
Clark Hoyt / New York Times:
When the Issue Is War, Take Nothing for Granted — A front-page article 11 days ago prompted a flurry of e-mail accusing The Times of playing into what readers said were Bush administration efforts to gin up hostility toward Iran. — The article reported that attacks on American-led forces …
Katie Hafner / New York Times:
Seeing Corporate Fingerprints in Wikipedia Edits — Last year a Wikipedia visitor edited the entry for the SeaWorld theme parks to change all mentions of "orcas" to "killer whales," insisting that this was a more accurate name for the species. — There was another, unexplained edit …
Observer:
The day reality hit home — The writer Andrew Anthony was a committed member of the liberal left - until the attacks of 11 September, 2001. A veteran of CND and Nicaraguan solidarity campaigns, he was astonished at the liberal left's anti-American reaction.
Diana Muir / Washington Post:
Risks in a Muslim Reformation — Salman Rushdie, Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof and Mansour al-Nogaidan are among the well-intentioned people who have called for an Islamic Reformation. They should be careful what they wish for. — The Protestant Reformation did precede the things …
Jurassicpork / Pottersville:
FRANK RICH: He Got Out While the Getting Was Good — BACK in those heady days of late summer 2002, Andrew Card, then the president's chief of staff, told The New York Times why the much-anticipated push for war in Iraq hadn't yet arrived. "You don't introduce new products in August," …
Frank Rich / New York Times:
[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: He Got Out While the Getting Was Good — Karl Rove's departure was both abrupt and fast. The ritualistic "for the sake of my family" rationale convinced no one.
New York Times:
2 Firefighters Killed in Blaze at Ground Zero — Two firefighters were killed yesterday battling a blaze in the Deutsche Bank skyscraper, a vacant relic of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack that was in the process of being dismantled. — The firefighters were among hundreds who poured …