Monday, July 23, 2007
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Victory Caucus 2.0
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Posted by:
Hugh Hewitt at
9:34 AM
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The redesigned Victory Caucus launched this morning, and it is a wonder.
You want facts about Iraq? Here are the facts.
You want metrics --the Victory Caucus has the metrics.
It also has the latest from the military as well as the key opinion-driven articles.
Hats off to N.Z. Bear for pouring himself into the effort to get information on the war into a form that is easily accessible and easily referenced.
The military's willingness to engage the public about Iraq shows no sign of letting up. I spoke with General Petraeus on Wednesday, and on Friday, Centcomm's Air Commander, Lt. General Gary L. North was interviewed by National Review's Thomas Smith. Read the whole thing, but here are a few key graphs:
SMITH: The “surge” in Iraq: Is it working?
LT. GEN. NORTH: The surge is working. We’re seeing great progress. And look at western Iraq, out in Al Anbar Province — a huge success story — and as the enemy is seeing that they are not welcome in the west, they are bumping back up against the western sectors of Baghdad and meeting huge resistance.
SMITH: And Diyala?
LT. GEN. NORTH: Absolutely, many of the enemy have moved out into Diyala Province. There’s quite a lot of fighting going on there right now. Some major operations, and that’s working well for us also. But war takes patience. There are some of our world partners who have said to me, “You know, from your Revolutionary War through your Civil War, it took you about 100 years for you as a nation to gel.” So it takes time. We have to be forward looking. There is a lot of progress going on in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. And understand, that in this fight — militarily — we are doing fabulously.
The willingness of the military to answer the serious questions is crucial to the public understanding the profgress in Iraq and the stakes there. The Victory Caucus is a crucial bookmark for assuring that all that information is easily available inone place.
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Despite the record low approval ratings, President Bush and his administration are still arrogant and blinded by the Iraq War. The people of this country are fed up with Bush’s senseless war and the lack of domestic policies. There are much more important issues in this world that the US should be taking part in, such as global poverty. According to the Borgen Project, whose goal is to fight global poverty, US is one of the nations pledged in the Millennium Development Project. MDP is aimed at eliminating world poverty in half by the year 2015. However, this country has done anything but reducing poverty. The war on “terror” has created more poverty, more hunger and more violence within Iraq and the United States. It is time for this country’s president to rethink the direction where this great nation is going. Perhaps the second lowest approval rating since Watergate will be a wake up call to President Bush. |
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Thank you.Terrrific site,every thing in one area, & maps are a real plus.I have family there. |
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Well stated.
Also keep in mind one thing regarding the post by this high school student.
She conveniently refers to a Bush document, which in and of itself is fine. However, she would otherwise discount and denigrate anything attached to our president, yet in this case, because it does not "fit" into her touch-feely expectations, she sees value in addressing it.
The thing which eludes this high school student is that Hugh merely provides the website as one more resource----an alternative resource mind you, that provides information not heard nor seen on that little "Barbie and Ken" television, pink in color, which she uses to flip back and forth between channels in mind-numbing fashion.
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You're right about avoiding propaganda: I stopped watching network news years ago.
You should stop listening to your high school teachers.... |
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"question the logic of attempting to go to a site called the "Victory Caucus" for information in the first place. Why would one go to a source of information which clearly has a goal in mind when presenting that information. It's like walking over to Kraft foods and asking them if cheese is good (I'm pretty sure that the answer is going to be yes)".
I would ask, dskerman, where do you get your news which does NOT, as you say, "have a clear goal in mind when presenting that information"?
Just curious---I would love to tap into your source for non-agenda driven information.
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Mike McConnel, Dir. of National Intel, featured on Meet The Press---billed, by Russert, as his first public interview.
Among so many things he "shared" with Tim Russert, there was none more appreciated than his answers regarding Stepen Hayes book, "Cheney".
Timmy, read at length, from pages 517-519 of Hayes' book.
Mr. McConnell's "taking greatest exception to", as a citizen, before reentering the federal workforce, he was worried that in the Pentagon there was established a "special unit".
He made it very clear, after he came back into this present position, what he found was, in his own words, "quite refreshing". Indeed, no one in the administration was operating from the aspect of, "tell us what we want to hear",
The dialogue within the administration, according to Mr. McConnell, "is open, and frank, and direct".
So, it would appear that his words, written in Stephen Hayes' book, were made when McConnell was a citizen, looking from the outside in, and after he has taken his present role as Director, he does not have these concerns----fascinating.
Also loved his answer to Timmy when asked about intelligence leading us to war with Iraq. "No" to the idea of "cherry-picking" info. Mr. McConnell continued, and made clear that he was, "...not being asked to go down one path, or and other path", with respect to the suggestion of "hyped info".
McConnell's comments, statements, in no way corroborate the picture of dramatic deceit as often painted by the MSM, the leftists, liberals, and most democrats.
Simply put, this head of Intelligence in our country made no case, nor contributed anything to support any of the "drama" spewed by the reactionary Left. Nothing!
The whole interview is here:
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&t=s53&g=e10461f7-89e1-415c-aa58-80d1b6f8066e&p=hotvideo_m_edpicks |
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MILTARILY -- we are doing well. Despite the way Townhall chooses to characterize matters, even those who are not right-wingers actually do understand that our military is second to none and is doing a great job. But there must also be a political solution, and the Bush adnministration utterly refuses to admit that it was a mistake not to engage in any diplomatic or other non-military initiatives -- and not only that, anyone who suggests that diplomacy or any non-military initiative might be useful is a troop-hating, wimpy, liberal traitor. That is the problem, and it is a serious impediment to a lasting success in Iraq. |
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While the successes in Al Anbar are great, and we should all be happy for stabilizing situation there it is irresponsible to prop it up as evidence that the surge is good policy without also looking at the limitations of that approach.
The main reason that the U.S. forces in Al Anbar have been able to get the local suni groups to unite against the Al Qeada forces in the area has a lot to do with the fact that Al Anbar province is overwhelmingly suni. The generals in the region have themselves stated that the current progress in Al Anbar is most likely not exportable to the majority of iraq.
But on another note I just question the logic of attempting to go to a site called the "Victory Caucus" for information in the first place. Why would one go to a source of information which clearly has a goal in mind when presenting that information. It's like walking over to Kraft foods and asking them if cheese is good (I'm pretty sure that the answer is going to be yes)
A war like this with enourmous costs on all sides is just too important to be presented in such a one sided cheerleading manner.
There are clearly valid points on both sides of the issue so why pretend that there isn't a larger picture? |
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well laid out.
nice use of charts.
user friendly.
appreciate the references to metrics.
stories in, "More News" very worthy.
Most of all:
great backdrop to the MSM stories
thanks for making available. |
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