Iraq, Afghanistan, Swiftboats and the CIA

The Kerry camp is firing off its salvo in the Swiftvets affair. An op-ed piece appeared today in the Opinion Journal authored by Jim Rassmann, the man that John Kerry saved in Vietnam. While Mr. Rassmann's article is a moving description of bravery under fire--no one ever said the man did nothing brave--it does not address the fundamental issues raised by the Swiftvets, namely that a candidate for president of the the United States who has wrapped himself up completely in his war time service may have completely misrepresented this service to the American people. The Dems are certainly capable of firing back--check out this article about a claim filed against the Swiftvets for violating Federal Election Committee rules. There's even a leftie wiki entry (alright, I changed it a little).

Meanwhile in Iraq, the situation in Najef looks like it's leading to a lot of carnage, but carnage that is almost entirely on Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. Having broken a ceasefire, al-Sadr has vowed to fight to the death. That may just happen, judging by this quote:

Najaf Gov. Adnan al-Zarfi gave U.S. forces approval to enter the shrine, a senior U.S. military official said Monday. "We have elected at this point not to conduct operations there, although we are prepared to do so at a moment's notice," the official said.

Sounds like fellow Shiites are fed up with al-Sadr. Base10 thinks this is a pathetic attempt at a power grab. The most senior Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is out of Iraq getting medical treatment in London.

Kerry made a rare forceful statement about Iraq today. Prompted by a challenge from the President, Sen. Kerry said that he would have still voted for the war even if he had known that the intelligence was faulty and there were no WMD's. Apparently unwilling to be too hawkish, Kerry also said that he would drastically reduce the number of US troops in Iraq by August of next year. This inspite of growing evidence that none of our allies would be helping us.

In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai will face seventeen challengers in the upcoming October 9 elections in that country. Well I guess Michael Moore was wrong again.

And in CIA news, the President has nominated Congressman Porter Goss of (R-Fl) to be the new CIA Director.

- posted by Base10 @ 3:47 PM