DISQUS

It's a stupid requirement and there should me an amendment eliminating the requirement that the President be a natural born citizen or a US citizen at the time of the constitution's adoption.

Lots of people keep mentioning the 3-4 month delay over Obama's campaign promises and that there'll still be 30,000-50,000 troops as "trainers" after the 19 months. I think that it's important to note that there's an expressed intention a) to carry though pretty closely with the broad outline's of the campaign promise and b) pretty much comply with the clear purpose of the SOFA and really withdraw from Iraq except those troops that Iraq agrees it needs (probably in a modification of the SOFA) kept on to train thier forces and provide backup support until they can stand on their own (and not re-label thousands and thousands of combat troops as "trainers" clearly in order to circumvent the SOFA). In other words, we can really see the end of the Iraq adventure.

If there aren't already Geneva conventions on the treatment of irregular combatant prisoners perhaps, given the U.S. military's emphasis on small wars and counterintelligence, it's time to establish them.

Maybe they want to put the Bush wars on the books and they need time to figure it out.

I'm not an economist but it sure seems to me that given a choice of infrastructure projects and military spending to goose the economy, infrastructure projects is better because it also adds value to the society and if throwing tons of money at the military were a solution, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. After all, it's what we've been doing like forever.

I imagine that Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al would consider Gonzales to be unfortunate but unavoidable collateral damage.

If President Bush were to pre-emptively pardon accused war criminals, then wouldn't the new administration would be obliged to extradict them to be tried before a competent international authority?

This forces us to ask the question "Why are Mulally and the company whose interest he is presumably representing in his testimony unwilling to make a 'symbolic gesture' in order to be saved by the U.S. taxpayers. After all, a "symbolic gesture" is merely symbolic and costs them nothing.

Criminality is criminality regardless of whether it's pickpocketing in a crowd, burglarizing homes, murdering a neighbor, or committing war crimes and engaging in corruption at the highest levels of government, and a law-bound society is bound to investigate crimes and prosecute criminals. How about turning this criminal matter over to a professional prosecutor or special prosecutor. I would propose Patrick Fitzgerald, by the way.

I haven't been following the discussions about new military doctrine, counterinsurgency, small wars, etc closely but your article caused me to wonder--Will the role of counterinsurgency in U.S. military doctrine be significantly diminished if the U.S. gives up its seemingly imperial aspirations after the Bush presidency ends?

It's good to see younger members getting their chance to lead.

"Palin also noted that his name reminds her of The Jackson 5." --Again demonstrating her lack of foreign policy experience. It reminds me of Josip Broz Tito, that other socialist.

I find it truly scary that 38 percent of the poll's respondents said that McCain's choice of Palin as his running mate makes them more confident in McCain's decision-making.

I wonder if maybe Palin and McCain and the GOP are laying the groundwork for massive challenges both at the polls on election day and in the courts on the day after attempting to have the votes of enough newly registered voters discounted to steal the election from Obama.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin raised some eyebrows during Thursday’s debate when she said would like to do more forums “without the filter of the mainstream media telling viewers what they have just heard.”

Those would be called "commercials."