Shoe for You Double U

 On this day in 2008:

Is it me, or does W smirk after that first bob and weave? We miss that about him. Prime Minister al-Maliki impressed us going for the block in a show of American-Iraqi solidarity.

It's been so long we had to look up the Iraqi PM's name. A war that we followed everyday throughout 2007 and 2008, from the the death of Zarqawi*, Anbar Awakening, The Surge**, and finally the Battle of Basra in March/April of 2008. When someone opened up a KFC in Fallujah that summer, we knew we'd won the war.

Was it worth all that? Well, we wouldn't do it again.

*Spell check recognizes

**We supported The Surge before it worked.

McCain, W, and Misunderstanding Iraq

Spengler wright's an interesting piece about the establishment's funeral for John McCain. Though generally right, as Spengler always is, he misinterprets events in Iraq:

Bush, supported by Senator McCain and the Republican mainstream, spent $5.6 trillion chasing the phantom of democracy in the Middle East, not to mention more than 6,700 American dead, more than 50,000 wounded and millions of lives disrupted.

There were some establishment types who supported the liberation of Iraq*, but mostly the long slog to the liberation pitted Bush against the Establishment. This includes Europe, the UN, etc.  The New York Times spent months dragging out establishment GOP types like James Baker and Brent Scowcroft to argue against removing Saddam.

The liberation of Iraq was not an establishment act, it was a radical act

*Tom Friedman (we feel gross just writing his name), Michal Ignatieff for a example.