Pravda Update

An important piece of news footage for the Hewitt Brigades:

Ann is warm and very natural. She has the look of an outdoors woman bred to be an equestrian, which she is — good carriage, rosy complexion, square jaw, and blond mane.

When she is not flashing her truly unbelievable smile, she may lower her eyes demurely. But Ann Romney is not demure — she may be modest, but she isn’t meek. She is unpretentious, but she isn’t shy. She lowers her eyes, thinking, and then looks up directly at her interviewer and dazzles him with that smile.

(Hat tip: Ben.)

The Netroots and the War

They are, of course, hopping mad. But a bill that continues funding while setting non-binding benchmarks is the only feasible path right now. As long as those benchmarks are extremely clear, and the deadline for their achievement September 15, then politically speaking I think it’s the best the Dems and reality-based Republicans can do. If you see the post below, you’ll understand the price. But there will be a terrible human price for withdrawal as well. A US withdrawal or redeployment will almost certainly mean a Darfur in Iraq. Unlike Darfur, however, this genocide will have been precipitated by the US, just as its conditions were laid by the Cheney-Rumsfeld-Bush occupation strategy. Giving the surge a few more months to see if this genocide has even the slightest chance of being avoided seems to me a defensible position. In fact, I think it’s the only morally defensible position.

Presidents do have constitutional lee-way in running a war. If, after three and a half years, the situation is clearly worse than when we started, and there is no hope for progress in the foreseeable future, then the American people will demand an end to it – and Congress will respond with veto-proof majorities. If we discover more information that suggests that al Qaeda is being strengthened rather than weakened by the occupation, then the pressure will be irresistible. And the reality-based Republicans will do what their country needs. Until then, patience is the right counsel, in my view. And a clear maintenance of this president’s sole responsibility for the continuing and accelerating disintegration.   

Searching For A Soldier

Don’t miss the gripping, moving account of U.S. soldiers searching for kidnapped comrades in the hell-hole of the Sunni triangle in the NYT today. The insurgents have drawn the troops off the roads into the bush, only to booby-trap the hinterland with IEDs, one of which blew one of their comrades up. He had no Humvee to protect him – because he was looking for his comrade on foot. It’s war-reporting of the highest caliber, and it contains a quote that rings with the truth and tragedy of the Iraq trap:

In a house close to where helicopters would later deliver bottles of water in black body bags, they rested once again. Sgt. Stephen Byers, 31, of Detroit said that Friday night was the first time he had a chance to call his wife and kids since the search started.

He said that he was too tired to say very much, but that his wife was clearly worried. He had begun to wonder himself if the search was becoming more dangerous. "The more we chase them around," he said, "the more they know where we’re at." But, he said, in a war without front lines and goals that are hard to achieve, the search offered the comfort of certainty, of a clear and noble goal.

"If we find them, we accomplish something specific," Sergeant Byers said. "It’s not like trying to bring peace to the area then finding out later that you didn’t."

Theocons Vs Rudy

They’re stirring as they should, if they are going to be consistent. Catholic theocons set a benchmark in 2004 for judging a Catholic politician, aided and abetted by the man who is now the current Pope, and the full NRO/First Things Monty. Compared with Giuliani, John Kerry is about as orthodox a Catholic as you can find. And by Benedict’s standards, no Catholic could in good conscience vote for a man with Rudy Giuliani’s social views. You’ve got to give Steve Dillard credit for applying his principles across parties. Will Ponnuru and Lopez and NRO follow? They better hope Romney or Fred Thompson stops Rudy, because the theocons would be trapped if Rudy emerged as the nominee. They’d have to go into the election urging all their acolytes to commit a sin, or to abstain. Rudy is a man who enthusiastically supports the death penalty and torture, and unenthusiastically supports abortion rights. Meanwhile, Obama sounds more and more Catholic every day.