Where Now for US Military Power?

Our big-sibling site, Libertas, has just posted a provocative analysis by Carl Conetta of the Project on Defense Alternatives. Conetta considers the role of US military power in an Obama foreign policy, opening provocatively:

A key objective of the new administration will be to “rebalance” America’s foreign and security policy “tool kit”, giving greater prominence to diplomacy and other elements of “soft power”.... But setting an effective alternative course for US policy will not be as easy to accomplish as some assume.

Read the report....

Iraq and Al-Qa'eda: Bush's Grand Strategy --- "So What?"

Perhaps the most interesting idea on fighting the "War of Terror" was the "flypaper effect": invade a country so all the terrorists would flock to it and then you could easily whip them.

Turns out that this was President Bush's grand strategy on "how to protect the American people", as he explained in a Farewell Interview to ABC's Martha Raddatz on Monday:

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iCW-Su2NG2w&eurl=http://crooksandliars.com/[/youtube]

Iraq and Shoes: The Worst One-Liners (So Far)

Runner-up: The headline of The Times  as Dana Perino, the White Press Secretary, appears before reporters sporting a black-eye suffered when she was hit by a microphone during the post-shoe turmoil:

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino shows off 'shoe-venir'

Winner: George Bush, setting out the official version of incident to journalists:

I didn't know what the guy said, but I saw his sole.

Global Update: Iraq, Shoes, and Video Games

A reader from Turkey updates us on the transformation of serious news into video games.

The Turkish tribute to Muntazar al-Zaidi's throwing of shoes at President Bush includes not one but two on-line challenges:  The Bush Shoe Throwing Game and That Guy Totally Threw a Shoe at Bush: The Game.

Enjoy!

*Our reader adds: "I have read that the thrown shoes were made in Turkey. So, we know at least who gave the shoes to put flowers inside."

Breaking News on the Iraq Non-Story: British Troops to Withdraw

The BBC has just reported from Baghdad the confirmation of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that British troops will withdraw from Iraq in the first half of 2009.

This, of course, is as dramatic as predicting that the Sun will set in the west. You can expect declarations today--- because they are already being trailed in the British press --- that this is because Britain's "mission is complete" rather than that it will no longer have legal authority to operate in Iraq.