Rats deserting sinking ship...

The main rat is leaving...last paragraph says it all.

White House lauds leadership of departing Emanuel

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The White House lavished praise on the leadership of hard-charging chief of staff Rahm Emanuel Thursday, on the eve of his planned departure to run for mayor of Chicago.
Spokesman Robert Gibbs would not officially confirm fresh reports on the timing of Emanuel's departure but said President Barack Obama had scheduled a personnel announcement for Friday in the East Room of the White House.
There have been hints for days that Emanuel will be leaving to campaign for his dream job running his home city, and that Pete Rouse, a key Obama advisor will replace him in the key post on a temporary basis.
Emanuel, Obama's political enforcer, has been intimately involved in every aspect of the administration, from his Afghan troop surge to his landmark health reform, and his departure will change the complexion of Obama's staff.
"There is not an important thing that has happened in this administration that we've been able to accomplish for the American people that has not involved heavily his signature," said Gibbs.
"The title 'chief of staff' in many ways, says it all. He has been the energetic, inspirational leader of us, taking the president's promises and agenda and enacting them into law."
Emanuel, a profane, hard-knuckled Washington operative will become the latest top White House official to leave, ahead of an expected rebuke from voters for Obama's Democrats in the congressional polls in November.

Can a shakeup of the White House staff invigorate the Obama presidency?
Such staff shake-ups are common in presidential administrations, where long hours and seven-day weeks under intense pressure are the norm, and job tenure is often around two years.
The office of chief of staff is vital in any White House, with the holder responsible for controlling access to the president and involved in all aspects of the administration's activities.
Emanuel's rare chance to run for mayor of his hometown opened up when Mayor Richard Daley, part of a famed Chicago political dynasty, announced he would not run for a seventh term in early 2011.
On Monday, in an interview with the NBC Today Show, Obama said that he thought Emanuel would have to make a decision quickly because running for mayor of Chicago was a "serious enterprise."
"I have said I think he would be an excellent mayor, but until he makes a decision, I'm not going to be making decisions about how I'm going to approach it."

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

September 27--A Great Day in History--note capitalization...

Our second anniversary!

I LOVE YOU MICHELLE!

Thesis committee assembled

My thesis committee is assembled and ready to go! The time period I am dealing with is going to the the fourth century BC, more specifically the changes in Greek warfare from 404 BC to 371 BC, right after the Peloponnesian War.

Looks and feels like another book.

I've done that a couple of times....

I am going to start to roll on this in October after I narrow down the subject a little. I am thinking something like the deficicencies in the Spartan military after the victory in 404 BC or maybe the way the Thebans tended to drive people crazy with new formations and unorthodox strategies.

It's going to be a lot of fun and I have a good team.

Yep, I am a history freak.....

Remember the heroes

Yes, we have forgotten

Yes, we have forgotten.

Concerts, college football, even the Greek Fest is underway as I write this. Maybe it is just an attempt on everyone's part not to dwell on this anniversary. It might be some sort of mass defense mechanism to deal with it but it does not seem right.

Eight years later, our own government is supporting the construction of a mosque two blocks from this site. The Freedom Tower that is supposed to be built here is not completed and will simply be named World Trade Center.

The city and state of New York is not helping firefighters and policemen who risked their lives to save others with the respiratory they are suffering from. Greed on nearby Wall Street has wreaked the economy. The government gave itself new powers after the attacks and weak abroad, acts mainly against Americans.

I just going to leave with this:

"Those who fail to remember history are condemned to repeat it."

Happy Labor Day!

Iraq War ends---sort of...

Today, August 31, 2010, US combat operations ended in Iraq.

Or is it?

Nearly 50,000 American soldiers remain in Iraq, still in combat formations, still armed, still likely to engage the enemy if attacked or called by the Iraqis for assistance.

Rather broad definition of "over."

Kind of like "Mission Accomplished"

Even if we take this statement at face value, the question remains, "Was the Iraq War worth it?"

Some one back in the 50s once asked the Zhou Enlai, then Preimer of China, if the French Revolution (1789) was a good idea. His answer: "I don't know yet."

Right now, after seven years of fighting, 4500 US KIAs and God knows how many Iraqi deaths, the answer, at the moment, seems like "no." But maybe in twenty years when Iraq is a stable democracy and it begins to spread in the Middle East, we can say the sacrifice was worth it.

Wht if Iraq collapse? Do we fight our way back in or do we walk away from it? Not an easy question.

For every good thing, we can find something bad. We deposed a brutal dictator but have we unleashed an instability that is worse? Or is a democracy painfully crawling forward?

We never found the weapons of mass destruction that was supposed to be the cause of the war but US forces fought, fought well and defeated al-Qieda. But will it rise up again after we leave Iraq?

On September 10, 2001, terrorists (and a lot of our allies) thought America was too decadent and weak to strike back. A French diplomat smirked during the 1999 Kosovo air campaign, "The Americans are brave when they bomb someone from 30,000 feet."

In Iraq and Afghanistan, American soldiers fought eye to eye with the enemy with rifles and shotguns and then shovels and knives. We also showed the world we could and would fight.

But the efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been hideously expensive (in lives and dollars) and badly organized.

And success remains in doubt.

I hope a generation from now, we will look at a prosperous, free, and peaceful Middle East and wonder what all the fuss was about. On the other hand, given the region's history, there is not a lot of cause for optimism.

We did not lose in Iraq but it does not feel like a victory.

More like a sigh of relief.

But it is not over yet.