Category: The Dish

"There is not ‘a’ civil war in Iraq, but many civil wars and insurgencies involving a number of communities and organizations struggling for power," – the Chatham House report, "Accepting Realities in Iraq", on the dinstegration of Iraq under U.S. occupation. The full report (PDF) can be found here.

Avon, Connecticut, 1.24 pm.

A reader writes:

In your most recent attack on Cheney, you quoted an oath that servicemembers swear when they join the armed forces. That is the oath for enlisted servicemembers, not for officers.

In point of fact, Cheney’s audience – the cadets of West Point – take a different oath upon receiving their commissions, as follows:

"I, _________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully execute the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God."

Notice the glaring difference: the officer, unlike enlisted servicemembers, does not swear an oath to obey the orders of the President or of the officers "appointed over me." His oath is solely to defend the Constitution.

In the Memorial Day blog, I posted a photograph of Guardsman Daniel Probyn, a British Soldier from the Grenadier Guards Regiment. He was repelling a Taliban assault at the Delhi Patrol Base in the desert on May 9, 2007 in Southern Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Go look at his face again today. He was killed Saturday. He was 22.

The former speaker finally agrees with my assessment of Bush: the Jimmy Carter of the Republicans.

I stayed home over Memorial Day, blogging like the sick blogaholic I am. Among the topics: how George Bush is turning out to be al Qaeda’s best buddy, how Cheney views the Constitution as something terrorists defend, and how Michael Moore wants to "eliminate" private health insurance. Also: Andy Roddick’s suspiciously big biceps, and Niebuhr’s foreign policy philosophy. Enjoy.

Professor Bainbridge explains.

But the threat of Tinky Winky lives on … in Poland.

Heterosexual barebacking is good for you.