The Commentariat -- December 16
President Obama speaks to the press about the progress of the AfPak War:
... New York Times: "A review of ’s strategy for the war in Afghanistan concludes that American forces can begin withdrawing on schedule in July, despite finding uneven signs of progress in the year since the president announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 troops, according to a summary made public Thursday." The Times has the President's summary report here. Washington Post story here. ...
... ** New York Times: "The International Committee of the Red Cross, which usually seeks to avoid the public eye, held a rare news conference [in Kabul] on Wednesday to express deep concern that Afghanistan security had deteriorated to its worst point since the overthrow of the Taliban nine years ago and was preventing aid groups from reaching victims of conflict." ...
... Alissa Rubin of the New York Times: "Although the numbers of American and German troops in the north[ern part of Afghanistan] have more than doubled since last year, insecurity has spread, the Taliban are expanding their reach, and armed groups that purportedly support the government are terrorizing local people and hampering aid organizations, according to international aid workers, Afghan government officials, local residents and diplomats." ...
... Carlotta Gaul & Ruhullah Khapalwak of the New York Times: "... residents and even a Taliban commander say the surge of American troops this year has begun to set back the Taliban in parts of their southern heartland [of Afghanistan] and to turn people against the insurgency — at least for now. The stepped-up operations in Kandahar Province have left many in the Taliban demoralized, reluctant to fight and struggling to recruit, a Taliban commander said in an interview this week." ...
... Rajiv Chandrasekaran & Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "While [President Obama's national security team] concluded that Obama's counterinsurgency strategy is showing signs of progress, divisions persist beneath the appearance of harmony. But skeptics in the administration have decided to hold their fire until late next spring, when Obama must decide how many troops he intends to withdraw starting in July to fulfill a pledge he made when he announced a troop increase last December." ...
... Despite President Obama's assurance that "we are on track to achieve our goals" in Afghanistan, Michael Crowley of Time thinks this exercise session better characterizes the status of the war effort:
John Cassidy of the New Yorker bids Larry Summers adieu.
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors, seeking to build a case against the leader for his role in a huge dissemination of classified government documents, are looking for evidence of any collusion in his early contacts with an Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking the information." ...
... CW: well, they could always waterboard the Manning kid, whom Glenn Greenwald writes is being held "under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture." ...
... This is the dark side of American exceptionalism.... In much the same way that a previous generation of Americans countenanced legalized segregation, ours has countenanced legalized torture. And there is no clearer manifestation of this than our routine use of solitary confinement. -- Atul Gawande, New Yorker
Philip Rucker & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Republican senators say they'll vote against their own earmarks. CW: you can bet they won't vote against them if their whip count shows the bill will fail. ...
... Alex Pareene of Salon: "Republicans were only delaying and obstructing action in the Senate to force a vote on the Bush tax cuts, in order to restore confidence to our nation's job-creating billionaires. Once the Senate approved the tax cut deal, Republicans immediately ... threatened to bring all Senate activity to a halt, for days, while also demanding that they not have to go to work on or after Christmas. Sen. Jim DeMint wanted to do that thing where one senator can demand that bills be read aloud in their entirety. DeMint was going to give the New START treaty and the omnibus spending bill the bedtime story treatment, until, apparently, Mitch McConnell made him back down." CW: do read all of Pareene's post. Here's a tweet on the subject from Jim Manley, Harry Reid's chief of staff:
Dan Froomkin of the Huffington Post: "Even as President Obama on Thursday attempts to put a good face on the war in Afghanistan, Vietnam-era whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and several dozen other anti-war protesters will be chaining themselves to the White House fence, inviting arrest in the name of peace. 'We are dedicated to exposing the true costs of war and militarism,' explained Mike Ferner, the president of Veterans for Peace, the group organizing Thursday's Lafayette Square rally and civil disobedience."
NRA Favors Guns for Criminals. Sari Horwitz & James Grimaldi of the Washington Post: a "controversial proposal by officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives calls for a measure strongly opposed by the National Rifle Association: requiring gun dealers to report multiple sales of rifles and shotguns to ATF.... In the past few days, the plan has quietly gained traction at Justice. But sources told The Post they fear that if the plan becomes public, the NRA will marshal its forces to kill it. Such is the power of the NRA."
Dana Milbank on President Obama's outreach to business: "If he keeps it up, this socialist president will earn himself a tickertape parade on Wall Street." ...
... ** The Structural Injustice of the Revolving Door. Jim Fallows on former Obama OMB Director Peter Orszag's move to Citigroup: "The idea that someone would help plan, advocate, and carry out an economic policy that played such a crucial role in the survival of a financial institution [Citigroup] -- and then, less than two years after his Administration took office, would take a job that (a) exemplifies the growing disparities the Administration says it's trying to correct and (b) unavoidably will call on knowledge and contacts Orszag developed while in recent public service -- this says something bad about what is taken for granted in American public life." ...
... Update: Fallows elaborates on his original post: "What I meant was, 'Politically this is damaging and should be shocking.' He notes that the Beltway Gang shrugged this off as so unnewsworthy that the Washington Post didn't bother to cover Orszag's zig to Citi; most of the media coverage came as a result of Fallows' original post on the Orszag move. As one of Fallows' readers remarked,
Sarah Palin, another money grabber, gets some vindication when people like Orszag make these choices. Her rhetoric about the 'elites' (see Administration to New York Times to Citi) ... starts to have some resonance.
... Ezra Klein likes Orszag & thinks he's an ethical person, BUT "The problem is what it will make the public think. Orszag now becomes part of a long list of public servants whose subsequent career decisions make people trust the government less. Maybe that conclusion is incorrect on their part, but it's not unfair."
Greg Sargent lays out the statistics to prove Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos is wrong to oppose repeal of DADT. "Amos' comments ... are reliant on a noxious stereotype.... The Pentagon study emphasizes that the potential negative impacts of repeal can be mitigated by a 'clear message' and 'strong leadership.' Gen. Amos would be doing the Marines under his command a favor by showing some." The underlying story from the Washington Post: Gen. James Amos, "the Marine Corps' top general, suggested Tuesday that allowing gays to serve openly in the military could result in more casualties because their presence on the battlefield would pose 'a distraction.'"
“Salutat” (1898) by Thomas Eakins & Andy Warhol’s “Camouflage Self-Portrait (Red)” (1986) are in “Hide/Seek,” at National Portrait Gallery. Photos by Artists Rights Society via the New York Times.Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post on the high-stakes culture war surrounding the "Hide/Seek" exhibition of gay & lesbian portraiture at the National Portrait. At a New York Public Library event, the exhibition's curators, Jonathan Katz and David C. Ward, tried to present a scholarly retrospective of the exhibit, but the controversy surrounding it was the main interest of the standing-room attendees. ...
... Stephen Colbert's interpretation of Eric Cantor's threat to defund the Smithsonian is as classic as the works mounted in the Hide/Seek installation:
Kevin Sack of the New York Times: "With a loose web of conservative plaintiffs leading the charge, and judicial rulings breaking thus far along ideological lines, the drive to scuttle the Obama health care law is once again highlighting the role of partisanship in America’s courts."
Christopher Hitchens in Vanity Fair: Glenn Beck & the tea party lunacy he gins up will have a long-lasting, dangerous effect on U.S. "... a whole new audience has been created, including many impressionable young people, for ideas that are viciously anti-democratic and ahistorical."
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