U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on the end of the war in Iraq:

He said that the war was worth the price in blood and money, as it set Iraq on a path to democracy. …

They’re going face challenges in the future,” Panetta said Wednesday during a visit with troops in Afghanistan. “They’ll face challenges from terrorism, they’ll face challenges from those that would want to divide their country. They’ll face challenges from just the test of democracy, a new democracy and trying to make it work. But the fact is, we have given them the opportunity to be able to succeed.”

Those quotes are from a Fox News story posted earlier today. If, however, you are a NPR consumer, you would never know the Defense Secretary said any such thing:

Panetta told those gathered that “challenges remain, but the U.S. will be there to stand by the Iraqi people as they navigate those challenges to build a stronger and more prosperous nation,” The New York Times reports.

He also said, the BBC writes, that the effort had been worth the cost because the U.S. leaves with an Iraq that is now a partner.

“You will leave with great pride — lasting pride,” Panetta told troops at the ceremony, according to the AP. “Secure in knowing that your sacrifice has helped the Iraqi people to cast tyranny aside and to offer hope for prosperity and peace to this country’s future generations.”

That’s about as gracious as NPR is willing to get. Nowhere does NPR mention the Secretary’s words about democracy or the real miracle of the war in Iraq, and that’s that we now have the first true democracy in the history of the Arab world. And though it may be complicated and take a few steps back at times, as a direct result, the flower of self-determination is opening in that region.

(more…)

The tragic death of Scottish aid worker Linda Norgrove has had one positive spin-off: it has given the British press a chance to dust off the old clichés about the US military, which have lain idle since the last good “incompetent gung-ho cowboy yanks shooting up our boys” incident during the opening days of the invasion of Iraq.  It’s especially timely since the high casualties expected to accompany the summer fighting season have failed to materialize, and continual editorials lamenting our seemingly endless commitment to an un-winnable war are redundant now that the new coalition government has announced that British troops won’t be there in strength beyond 2015 (stand by, however, for the “Why are we cutting and running/ Was it all in vain?” memes to be deployed as the situation, and reader appetite, require).

Some of the most interesting coverage of the failed – sorry “bungled” – Norgrove mission –has come from the schizophrenic Daily Telegraph.  While the more liberally-inclined sectors of the UK press take a consistently skeptical tone in their reporting on the US, the ostensibly conservative Telegraph finds itself in a difficult position: ideologically inclined to support the beacon of global capitalism, and enthusiastic in the championing of individual liberty over the nanny state, pro-Americanism should be a gut reflex to the Telegraph.  Yet stories  continue to appear which are apparently written by some grumpy hack in a basement who came of age in World War Two when the yanks were “overpaid, over-sexed and over here,” and cut his teeth reporting President Eisenhower supposedly stabbing British Prime Minister Anthony Eden in the back over the 1956 Suez fiasco.   And it is this latter tone that is wont to manifest itself when the US military screws up – sorry “cocks up, old chap” – and the Telegraph pounces. (more…)

Friday night I was joined by Team Breitbart in L.A. at CBS Studios to appear on “Real Time with Bill Maher.” It was exactly what I thought it would be except for one thing: I was taller than most of the men on the panel. Maybe it was the heels, but I positively towered over a couple of them when I went to shake hands and I’m not a particularly tall woman.

Originally we were to discuss the Chamber of Commerce, Christine O’Donnell, over-population, and the Nobel Prize to the pioneer of in-vitro fertilization; topics changed a bit shortly before the show which was fine except that I was really hoping to see where my fellow panelists stood on free speech and the CoC because that could’ve been a party.

A few things:

1. My fact resolutely stands on my statement that we spent MORE in stimulus than in Iraq. Saying “nu-uh” doesn’t change this. The stimulus adds up to $862 billion dollars, $100 billion MORE than Iraq. Really, I could be a total and correct brat and argue that the stimulus is further beyond even this figure – factor in the second stimulus, the EduJobs bill (a $26 billion-dollar payoff to unions as we had $38 billion in unspent stimulus allocated specifically for this same purpose laying by the wayside), additional billions added for food stamps and unemployment, Cash for Clunkers – all of it an artificial mechanism to stimulate the economy to some idiotic Keynesian economic principle by spending cash we don’t possess. Correction: spending CHINA’S cash. I know how the left loves to pass cash with China, but this is becoming ridiculous.

For argument’s sake, let’s say that the stimulus (minus all the other stimulus projects I mentioned above) didn’t cost $100 billion more than the cost of Iraq. Iraq was a success. The stimulus was not. (more…)

The Chronicle of Higher Education, in the course of a long profile about disgraced professor Michael Bellesiles, has this to say about his latest whopper:

Then, after I interviewed him, Mr. Bellesiles published an essay in The Chronicle Review. In the piece, which seemed innocuous enough, he writes about a student in his military-history class at Central Connecticut State whose brother was killed in Iraq. The essay is about how real life intrudes on the classroom, how teachers must be sensitive to what’s going on in the lives of their students.

One of his old critics, James Lindgren, then wrote a post on the group blog The Volokh Conspiracy. Mr. Lindgren, a professor of law at Northwestern University, had searched through the records of military deaths and couldn’t find one that matched the description in Mr. Bellesiles’s essay. Other bloggers piled on, including Glenn Reynolds, of Instapundit, and Megan McArdle, of The Atlantic. The title of one post, “Is Bellesiles At It Again?,” conveys the tenor of the response.

Like Mr. Lindgren, I couldn’t find any military records that matched the details in the essay. I contacted the teaching assistant for the class, who confirmed Mr. Bellesiles’s version of events, saying that the student had seemed distressed and had told him that his brother was killed in either Iraq or Afghanistan. I had a brief conversation with the student, who told me the brother’s name and said he was in the Army. I then spoke with an Army official, who searched a database containing the names of all service members killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. The name didn’t come up.

In an e-mail exchange I then had with the student, he admitted that he had lied about some of the details he told Mr. Bellesiles, the teaching assistant, and, later, me. It wasn’t his brother but rather a friend who had died in Afghanistan. He explained the situation in more detail, but I’m going to keep those details private. Exposing him doesn’t seem right, even if his credibility is questionable.

(more…)

Continuing with our top ten most left-biased journalists working in America today, at number six we feature the redoubtable… or is it just doubtable… Rick Sanchez of CNN. Let’s face it, no list of Old Media left-wingers could be complete without the Ricker appearing on it somewhere!

Any casual observer would conclude that Sanchez has been a thorough wallower in left-wing bias for decades, even pushing his agenda on college kids.

Back in 2008 during the campaign for the election that gave us President Obama, Sanchez took his CNN cameras on the road to see how “America Votes, 2008.” Apparently, Sanchez thought “America” only cared about the left because that was all he was interested in pushing.

On April 21, Sanchez aired his appearance at Penn State University but in the days before that episode of “America Votes” some of the students that participated in the taping of the segment complained that Sanchez was pushing a left-wing narrative the whole time and acted the bully against the conservative kids. (more…)

We finally have proof that life exists beyond the confines of planet earth, although not necessarily intelligent life. How else can one explain Joe Biden other than to postulate that he comes from another planet, if not an alternate universe? The Vice President’s stunning observation about Iraq last certainly defied any form of earthly logic:

“I am very optimistic about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration.”

Of which administration? Of the administration led by the fellow who, as the junior Senator from Illinois, opposed the surge that turned the war around? That administration? Let us time travel back to 2007, when then-Senator Barack Obama offered his sage opinion about the surge:

We can send 15,000 more troops, 20,000 more troops, 30,000 more troops – I don’t know any expert on the region or any military officer that I’ve spoken to privately that believes that is going to make a substantial difference on the situation on the ground.

(more…)

I’ve interviewed many celebrities, politicians and sports stars over the years. I’ve grilled George Soros, been threatened by Mike Tyson and had fun with Jason Alexander. I’ve never interviewed a President of the United States, but I’d welcome the opportunity and the responsibility. Who wouldn’t? During his first year in office, Barack Obama did 158 “exclusive” interviews. I don’t know how you do 158 “exclusives,” but basically that means he sat down, one-on-one with everybody from Katie Couric to Al Jazeera. Al Roker never got an exclusive, but there’s plenty of time this new year to make that happen.

Since many people have gotten on that “exclusive” list, I’d like to give it a shot. We can do it when he comes to Las Vegas, or I’d foot the bill to fly to his place in D.C. to make it happen. If the President wants the questions in advance, I’d tell him to read this column, I’ll put some of them here. I’ve never been one to put questions in writing before I do an interview, certainly not for the person I’m interviewing, and I’ve never really even done it for myself, so this is rather unique for me to put this much planning into an interview.

But if I had fifteen minutes with the President, I’d ask him some question that he’s probably never been asked by my friends in the activist old media who have actually gotten the opportunity to talk to him and pretty much wasted it. So, here goes, my questions for the President: (more…)