Logic...and a little hypocrisy...

If you read Professor Jaun Cole's excellent work on the options in Iraq, you'll find some of the best logic and arguments against the so-called "Surge option" yet stated....and you'll also get another dose of the hypocrisy of George W. Bush.....

let's lead off with the hypocrisy first.

Remember Bush is telling the country that anybody who suggests that a "timetable" for withdrawal is a "bad idea"? Well, here's what GOVERNOR/PRESIDENTAL CANDIDATE George W. Bush had to say about Clinton's work in Bosnia in 1999:

Think Progress points out that in 1999, Governor George W. Bush criticized then President Clinton for declining to set a withdrawal timetable for Kosovo, saying "Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is."


The logical argument part of the post can be found here in Informed Comment, Professor Cole's blog.

In this edition, Professor Cole presents the top ten reasons (sounds sort of like Letterman, huh?) presented by the Administration for escalating or at least prolonging our presence in Iraq.....and shoots them all down, one-by-one with precision, research and facts. Here's one I particularly like (because he mixes in a little "snark" with facts:

4. "Iraq is not in a civil war," as Jurassic conservative Fox commentator Bill O'Reilly
insists. There is a well-established social science definition of
civil war put forward by Professor J. David Singer and his colleagues:
"Sustained military combat, primarily internal, resulting in at least 1,000
battle-deaths per year, pitting central government forces against an
insurgent force capable of effective resistance, determined by the latter's
ability to inflict upon the government forces at least 5 percent of the
fatalities that the insurgents sustain." (Errol A. Henderson and J. David
Singer, "Civil War in the Post-Colonial World, 1946-92," Journal of Peace
Research, Vol. 37, No. 3, May 2000.)" See my article on this in
Salon.com. By Singer's definition, Iraq has been in civil war since
the Iraqi government was reestablished in summer of 2004. When I have been
around political scientists, as at the ISA conference, I have found that
scholars in that field tend to accept Singer's definition.

Be sure to click on the Linky-thing and read the whole article. It's well worth your time.

Post script.....

In answer to an inquiry...Yes. Yes the grinch tie WAS my Son's Christmas Present to me....