This week's Congressional hearings where General David Petraeus was subject to an inquisition by quislings proves the founding fathers were correct to point out in Federalist 75 that Congress should have a minimal role in foreign policy.

In the Federalist Papers Alexander Hamilton wrote: 

Michael Totten has a great dispatch from Ramadi. 

In Totten's article a Marine officer says:

"I didn't realize until I got here that the problem in Anbar Province was 100 percent Al Qaeda," he said. "The old Baath Party insurgency  here is completely finished. That war was won and Americans, including me, had  no idea it even happened." 

That thought was expressed to me last April and it struck me as odd that we could have won or be winning and not even realize it. 

Senator Chuck Schumer is trying to re-write history and we will probably see this a lot in the coming debate over Iraq.

"Of course that is what the U.S. Military wants me to see." Katie Couric

I've spent 9 months in Iraq over the course of three trips.

After 5 pages of introductory material, including this statement,

"Driven largely by the accelerating pace of tribal engagement and the increasing tempo of Coalition operations, developments in Iraq are unfolding more rapidly and with greater complexity today than when we completed our January NIE....."

As I and many have noted, the speed of battlefield has outpaced distinguished professors published in Foreign Affairs and much commentariat.

I know guys who earned purple hearts.  I've been on the missions where they earned them.

This guy is getting what he deserves for faking it.

There has been a modest up-tick in support for winning the war in Iraq.   

The New York Times in a mid-July poll discovered up-tick and didn't believe it.  So, they ran the poll again.  Same result.  Support for the war was up.

The reason for the uptick?  An increase in optomistic Gross Ratings Points on the same topic.

With a sandstorm bearing down us, I asked this member of the Shihabi Neighborhood Watch a simple question.

I got a very simple answer.