See previous: 2007.05.14 Dem Perfidy // Islamism Delenda Est Roundup

Below the fold, newest items at the top: 

• American Legion spanks John Edwards
• White House taps general for 'war czar' post
• Is Bush Mentally Ill? Newsweek Says Yes
• CNN: Al Qaeda collapsing in Anbar?
• Troops kidnapped in 'planned snatch,' official says
• The Eschatology of the Coming Nuclear War
• No Way to Win a War
• The search continues...updated with some identity info...
  2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, Ft. Drum
• Supporting Those Who Stay Behind
• Winning the PR War in Iraq
• Pentagon: Gitmo detainees go back to fighting

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American Legion spanks John Edwards
Michelle Malkin

The American Legion smacks down John Edwards for his plans to politicize Memorial Day:

Democrat John Edwards' call for voters to speak out against the Iraq war on Memorial Day has drawn criticism from a leader of the American Legion, who called the effort "revolting."

In an e-mail message and on his Web site, Edwards asks supporters to honor and pray for the troops on Memorial Day and to send them care packages and treats. But the presidential candidate also urges supporters to use the holiday to denounce the war — an effort Paul Morin, national commander of the American Legion, decried as an attempt to "politicize" the day.

"Revolting is a kind word for it. It's as inappropriate as a political bumper sticker on an Arlington headstone," Morin wrote on the Legion's Web site.

I wouldn't put it past Edwards and his ilk. The American Legion's full statement is on its website. Conclusion: ...

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White House taps general for 'war czar' post

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush has chosen Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, the Pentagon's director of operations, to oversee the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan as a "war czar" after a long search for new leadership, administration officials said Tuesday.

In the newly created position, Lute would serve as an assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser, and would also maintain his military status and rank as a three-star general, according to a Pentagon official.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Bush had not yet made an announcement.

Creation of the new job comes as the administration tries to use a combat troop buildup in Iraq to bring a degree of calm so political reconciliation can take hold.

The White House has sought a war coordinator to eliminate conflicts among the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies -- and to speak for the president at times.

The addition will help Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, who monitors hot spots around the world.

Bush's move is part of a lengthy reshuffling of war leaders. Yet critics have questioned whether a new coordinator will help so late in the Bush presidency or will instead add confusion in the chain of command.

The Bush administration has avoided the term "war czar." Lute's title would be assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan policy and implementation.

Lute became director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in September.  ...

I'm gonna have to keep my eyes open for a better explanation of what's going on here from a more reputable source. Three stars and his going to give the Joint Chiefs their marching orders? Yeah, right. Sure.

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ABC has a little more here but doesn't show much more understanding of reality than the AP does. (H/T: Michelle Malkin)

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Ed Morrissey's having trouble making sense of the situation as well.

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Is Bush Mentally Ill? Newsweek Says Yes
Posted by Tim Graham

Is President Bush mentally ill? Sharon Begley is a senior editor for science at Newsweek, which apparently entitled her to conduct a tired psychoanalysis of President Bush and his state of denial about the war in Iraq, suggested earlier in his life by his comforting his mother as his sister Robin died of leukemia at age three, and his alcohol abuse as an adult. It "could all be dismissed as psychobabble," Begley wrote, but she marshaled experts to diagnose him from afar for his "pathological certainty that things are going well."

In an article titled "The Truths We Want to Deny," Begley, a longtime Newsweek writer (recently returned to the fold after five years at the Wall Street Journal), overcame the awkwardness of diagnosing mental illness from a distance: ...

H/T: Allahpundit, who comments here.

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CNN: Al Qaeda collapsing in Anbar?
Allahpundit

Too complex to give you the flavor in a reasonable length excerpt. Go read it.

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Troops kidnapped in 'planned snatch,' official says

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. forces searching for three soldiers abducted in a Saturday attack south of Baghdad believe the troops were kidnapped in a "planned snatch," involving at least 10 insurgents, a senior U.S. military official said.

Insurgents targeted a "stationary observation post" -- where troops looked for people planting bombs, the official said.

The kidnapping was part of a "complex attack," meaning the attackers used many different weapons such as firearms and grenades, but the source wouldn't be specific on the kinds of weapons used.

A nearby unit heard explosions early Saturday "and attempted to establish communications, but without success." Later, an unmanned aerial vehicle spotted two burning vehicles and coalition forces arrived within the hour.

Officials in the military want to know how far away other such posts were and why other soldiers couldn't get there in time.

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The Eschatology of the Coming Nuclear War
Confederate Yankee

U.S. News and World Report has a short post up concerning the simulation of nuclear detonations in the Middle East:

A simulation has determined that any major use of nuclear forces in the Middle East in the next decade would most likely be "existential," meaning that an attack would amount to an effort to destroy a nation and the ability of its people to ever recover from a nuclear exchange. The briefers determined that Israel would be vulnerable to such attacks--and so would any Iranian attacker. The simulation was developed by the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., to examine the nuclear dynamics likely to develop in the Middle East between 2010 and 2020. ...

First, is there ever a "minor" use of nuclear forces?

But that isn't my main focus here. ...

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No Way to Win a War
NRO Editors

Fresh off President Bush’s veto of an Iraq supplemental with mandated withdrawal dates, Nancy Pelosi and her House Democrats have passed another bill that would sabotage the war effort.

On Thursday, the House voted to split war funding into two parts. $42.75 billion — enough to fund operations through July 31 — would be released right now. The president would have to report on progress in Baghdad by July 13, and then a second vote would be required to release the remaining $52.8 billion, which would carry the military through the end of the fiscal year in October. President Bush has pledged to veto this bill if it reaches his desk — as indeed he should. The two-part approach would hobble the military’s ability to conduct operations in Iraq and decrease its readiness worldwide.

To begin with, ...

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The search continues...updated with some identity info...
2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, Ft. Drum
Michelle Malkin

The search continues for our missing soldiers in Iraq. And a few new details emerge:

U.S. troops have questioned hundreds of people and detained 11 in the search for three American soldiers feared captured by al-Qaida during a weekend ambush in an insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

"We have conducted more than 450 tactical interviews and detained 11 individuals" as of Monday night, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said without elaborating.

"We are working with the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police in searching for our missing soldiers. We're also communicating with the local population for information, for support and the local population continues to be helpful in providing tips," Garver said...

The NYTimes has more on the alleged abductors. This is apparent revenge, the Islamic State of Iraq claims, for the killing of al Qaeda big Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri (along with, as Allah noted, leveraging the unrelated atrocity of a horrific rape last year for propaganda value, as an excuse for their own savagery): ...

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Supporting Those Who Stay Behind
Laura Lee Donoho (H/T: Lorie Byrd)

No way I can do it justice with a short excerpt or summary. Just go read it.

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Winning the PR War in Iraq
By Jeff Emanuel

Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) saw the advent of a practice which revolutionized modern war reporting: the embedding of journalists with frontline combat units in war. This practice gave the media, the American public, and the world unprecedented access to the soldiers on the front lines, as well as to the war itself, through the filing of stories, photographs, and video from the battlefront in real time, by reporters who were right there with the soldiers doing the fighting. "We were offered an irresistible opportunity: free transportation to the front line of the war, dramatic pictures, dramatic sounds, great quotes," said Tom Gjelten of National Public Radio. "Who can pass that up?"

While the military also benefited from having an eager outlet for its stories and successes, the biggest result of the embedding process was the shift it caused in the relationship between the military and the media, which laid the groundwork for a fundamental change in the dynamics of war reporting. As Major General Buford Blount of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division explained, "A level of trust developed between the soldier and the media that offered nearly unlimited access." ...

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Pentagon: Gitmo detainees go back to fighting

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The Pentagon on Monday released the names of six former Guantanamo detainees who U.S. officials say re-emerged as Islamist fighters in Afghanistan after their release from the U.S. military prison in Cuba.

The Defense Department said three of those released from the prison for suspected militants resurfaced as senior Islamist fighters in Afghanistan while a fourth was later identified as having been a Taliban deputy defense minister.

The six were among 30 former detainees who the Pentagon said have rejoined the fight against U.S. and coalition forces since their release from Guantanamo. All told, about 390 detainees have been released or transferred from the prison.

"While we have long maintained that we would like to close Guantanamo, there are a number of highly dangerous men who if released would pose a grave danger to the public," explained Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. J.D. Gordon.  ...