Iraq
July 5, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
The U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition struck the terrorist group 37 times on July 4. So reports the Daily Caller, citing a statement by Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR). The majority of the strikes took place in Syria, in support of the Syrian Democratic Force’s (SDF) push on ISIS’s capital of Raqqa. They hit ISIS oil infrastructure, as well as 17 fighting positions in or near Raqqa. Backed by U.S. air strikes the
»
March 6, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
John discussed the Trump administration’s revised travel order in a post below. He says it looks bullet proof, and so it does. However, I can’t help but suspect that if the same judges who reviewed the original order rule on its successor, the outcome might well be the same, with new concerns providing the basis for an anti-administration ruling. This time around, though, I’m confident the administration is prepared to
»
February 22, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
The New York Times notes one thing that the generals President Trump has appointed to top administration positions have in common. Gen. Jim Mattis, Gen, John Kelly, and Gen. H.R. McMaster each, at one point or another, “strode the sands of Iraq, fighting on the unforgiving battlefield of America’s costliest war since Vietnam.” Now “all three will sit around the table in the White House Situation Room, steering a new
»
February 6, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Last night, I caught part of Bill O’Reilly’s interview with President Trump, including an exchange that drained the moderate amount of enthusiasm I’ve been able to muster for the new president. O’Reilly asked Trump whether he respects Vladimir Putin. Trump said he does, but that this doesn’t mean he will get along with him. No major problem so far. In a sense, I think you have to respect what Putin,
»
October 16, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Iraqi forces have commenced an offensive to retake the city of Mosul, ISIS’s last main stronghold in Iraq. According to the Washington Post, the battle will be waged by tens of thousands of Iraqi troops, perhaps as many as 80,000. The forces will consist of Kurdish peshmerga soldiers, Sunni tribal fighters, army, police, Shiite militias, and elite counterterrorism units. The U.S. will back their effort with air support and “advisers”
»
August 4, 2016 — John Hinderaker
Part of the propaganda campaign against the Iraq war was the claim that coalition troops were torturing captured Iraqis. Those claims made a pretty big splash in the United States, and probably even a bigger one in Europe. Now it turns out that large numbers of Iraqis may have been paid by British lawyers to make false claims of torture: One of the country’s leading human-rights lawyers faces a criminal
»
July 10, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
If you relied on accounts by the mainstream media of the Chilcot Report regarding Britain’s decision to participate in the toppling of Saddam Hussein, you might easily conclude that it supports the “Bush-Blair lied, people died” narrative so cherished by the left. You wouldn’t know that the Report actually rejects this claim. This account by Steven Erlanger and David Sanger of the New York Times doesn’t say so. Neither does
»
July 6, 2016 — John Hinderaker
By now you probably have heard about Donald Trump’s latest venture into fantasy, his claim yesterday that Saddam Hussein was somehow anti-terror: [Saddam] killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn’t read ’em the rights. They didn’t talk. They were a terrorist, it was over! If you substitute “opponent of his regime” for “terrorist,” you have a true statement. Otherwise, as Jay Nordlinger reminds us, Trump’s claim is absurd.
»
May 22, 2016 — John Hinderaker
From today’s Telegraph: The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) is reported to have set up laboratories in built-up neighbourhoods in the heart of its so-called caliphate to avoid being targeted by coalition air strikes. Learning from the Palestinians. The terror group is known to harbour chemical and nuclear ambitions, and is trying to manufacture weapons not only for attacks within Iraq and Syria but also the West.
»
May 2, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Over the weekend, protesters stormed into Baghdad’s Green Zone, chasing out Iraqi officials. The MSM has portrayed this as a huge blow to the Iraqi government, putting in doubt its prospects for surviving and putting in jeopardy the war against ISIS in Iraq. I’m not sure how reliable these assessments are. I also question whether the reporting, which treats the protests as mainly a reaction to government corruption, gets at
»
April 2, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Dianne Feinstein came up empty when asked by the San Francisco Chronicle what Hillary Clinton accomplished during her time in the Senate. Feinstein couldn’t recall any “bills [Clinton] authored.” However, she noted that “there are things outside of bills that you can do.” There are, indeed. A reader directs my attention to three such things Clinton did in the Senate. First, she voted to authorize invasion of Iraq. Later, she
»
February 19, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Donald Trump has made his alleged opposition to the war in Iraq a central theme of his presidential campaign. He claims that it differentiates him from his opponents and speaks to his sagacity when it comes to foreign and military policy. Early on, we noted that there was no evidence Trump opposed the invasion before it occurred. He began to criticize the war only after it appeared to be going
»
February 15, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Donald Trump continues to insist that prior to the invasion of Iraq, he said we “should not go into Iraq.” Last year, the tycoon said he could provide 25 articles demonstrating that he took that position. However, he has not provided one, and apparently nobody else has unearthed any either. This isn’t to say that Trump failed to opine on the question of whether to invade Iraq. Andrew Kaczynski of
»
February 14, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Last night, Donald Trump repeated his claim that “I’m the only one on the stage that said we should not go into Iraq.” As I’ve pointed out before, however, there is no credible evidence that Trump said any such thing. Trump had plenty to say about the Iraq invasion after it had taken place. In the early days, when it wasn’t going well, he called the invasion a mess. But
»
January 23, 2016 — Scott Johnson
Chris Matthews opened Hardball last night with an extended discussion of National Review’s editorial and symposium Against Trump. The NR cover flags the editorial by “The Editors” followed by the names of 22 conservative contributors. As the screen flashed a graphic of the cover, Matthews described the contributors as “22 hastily deputized editors.” Matthews seemed not to understand that the cover advertised the editors’ unsigned editorial opposition to Trump along
»
January 6, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
I’m disappointed that Ted Cruz has been describing as “neocons” some of the people whose foreign policy views don’t align with those he professes. Jonah Goldberg has called him out on this practice. Throwing the neocon label around isn’t an argument; it’s name-calling. Cruz argues well enough that he shouldn’t have to rely on name-calling. It must have gone over well with focus groups. Name-calling is bad enough. To make
»
January 1, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
2015 ended on a high note when ISIS was defeated in Ramadi. The news seemed all the brighter because according to reports from U.S. commanders, Iraqi military forces retook the city without help from Shiite militias. However, the distinction between Iraqi military forces and Shiite militias may not be as sharp as these reports assume. David French cites a Newsweek report that “the security forces of the Iran-backed regime in
»
