Desire Armed

The news today was not particularly interesting. It all seemed very predictable. Obama is leading in the polls, Turkey says that the U.S. government did not object to their military plans, and John McCain had to retract something he said previously about the war and his election.

The most interesting thing I read about was Norway's Doomsday Vault. Now I know where to go when mother gaia hits the reset button...

All this was over shadowed by the news of Justin and Amanda's buddy passing away in Iraq. The Phillips family could use some prayer during this hard time.

A really close friend of Justin and Amanda's passed away this weekend in Iraq.

Slate's Michael Kinsley writes in "Defining Victory Downward: No, the surge is not a success," that the surge was originally only supposed to be temporary. We needed to increase troop levels in order to stabilize Iraq and then we could start withdrawing them.

He concedes that there is hardly dispute the surge has worked to bring down, "...attacks on American soldiers, car bombs, civilian deaths, potholes." He then goes on to point out the obvious choice facing those who originally opposed the surge. Either admit they were wrong or down play the success and run the risk of looking like they,"resent all the good news and remain eager for disaster."

I am not important enough for this to matter, but I opposed the surge and find myself in this category. I can remember reading through a few reports over a year ago. The most important being, "The Iraq Study Group:The Way Forward -- A New Approach." Afterwards I was convinced that the surge was the stupidest idea we could implement. (On a side note: I can also remember yelling at John McCain when he was interviewed on The Daily Show about it.) A year later, with the success of the surge, I have found myself in a few conversations where I have admitted being wrong. I do not mind having to do this and I certainly do not resent the successes that are happening now as a result of the surge.

Kinsley's article, however, has complicated things for me. He writes that the surge has not worked yet because it has not, "...allowed us to reduce troop levels to below where they were when it started."

I was not too enthusiastic about the news today: the critics didn't like the Oscars, there is tension with Turkey having invaded Northern Iraq, and then there is the recall of 143 million pounds of beef that we have already eaten most of.

The funniest short today came from Morning Brief with:

In a shocking upset, Raúl Castro was made president of Cuba. In his acceptance speech, he vowed to change very little and consult his brother regularly.

Once again I find myself restarting the blog.

Maybe returning to my black theme roots will motivate me to post more.

Finally got a plane ticket home. I'll be flying down for spring break to spend some time with the family. Been over a year already since I've seen them.