First steps

Elections

More evidence of the success the US and allies could have had if focus was maintained on Afghanistan? McClatchy on the Pakistan election results.

And many military folks recognize the price that has been paid for an expansive war on terror. So says a poll of military folks (mostly retired).

The US can't blame Australia for any future problems because they're heading back down under. All 550 of them. Interesting: 80% of the Australian public oppose their country's involvement. Reuters.

Some interesting articles

OK: I haven't read all of the below articles (I read the first two), but they appear to be interesting and timely.

1) Iraq overview. The USA Today, one of the more under-appreciated news outlets, has a fine cover story on the state of Iraq and the domestic politics of that issue. Bottom line: the surge is working (so far) and Dems have to adjust their talking points to confront that reality. But they're not all wrong either.

2) The nomination process - a historical overview. Great on the history, but the likelihood of the recommendations gaining support, and the likelihood that passage of the recommendations will have the hoped for impact, well, I have my doubts on both fronts.

3) Waterboarding history. One of the four I haven't yet read. Interesting if it goes into previous US efforts in counterinsurgency operations, as the first bit of the article indicates.

4) All aboard the straight talk express. New Yorker rides the crazy train of love.

The Democratic Candidates on Healthcare

Interesting article from Politico.com on the Clinton and Obama approaches to getting healthcare insurance to more Americans

Foreign policy stuff

In-depth article on SecDef Gates at the NYTimes Magazine. (Gates sides with a halt in troop draw-down.)

Burying some info on Iraq War screw-ups. (Is there anything about this that we don't know though?)

The other war in Afghanistan: Says Ann Marlowe - things are going better militarily, but no thanks to Karzai

Iran and decreasing likelihood of moderation.

Venezuela: the people have a different impression of Hugo. Jackson Diehl.

A kinder, gentler Al Qaeda?

I guess they're getting softer in the old age:

The Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq is telling its followers to soften their tactics in order to regain popular support in the western province of Anbar, where Sunni tribes have turned against the organization and begun working with U.S. forces, according to group leaders and American intelligence officials.

However, it's important to not forget the kind of people the world is dealing with. Here's a gem of a headline: "Insurgents Are Teaching Youths to Kill, U.S. Asserts." And from inside the WP article:

Abu Anwar al-Obaidi, an al-Qaeda in Iraq member in Garma, east of Fallujah in Anbar province, said the videos were authentic but described the boys as orphans and beggars. Some were the kidnapped children of Iraqi policemen and soldiers, he said.

"They should expect not only kids to be trained," Obaidi said in a telephone interview with a Washington Post special correspondent. "We might even put bombs on animals and send them to checkpoints. The American forces will find it impossible to find a solution for this. They will be forced to kill kids, animals, which will bring shame on the American forces."

If the quote and story are accurate, it's amazing to know that such a pathetic belief system exists. This AQI guy WANTS American soldiers to kill children. Ridiculous.

Military moves

Amazing change. Perhaps the change isn't that amazing because it has been happening. But the acknowledgment is a bit of a stunner:

The Army has drafted a new operations manual that elevates the mission of stabilizing war-torn nations, making it equal in importance to defeating adversaries on the battlefield.

Military officials described the new document, the first new edition of the Army’s comprehensive doctrine since 2001, as a major development that draws on the hard-learned lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan, where initial military successes gave way to long, grueling struggles to establish control.

It is also an illustration of how far the Pentagon has moved beyond the Bush administration’s initial reluctance to use the military to support “nation-building” efforts when it came into office.

Money, Money, Money

President Bush released his budget proposal. A slight bit of controversy over it: a freeze on lots of domestic spending and some gimmickry to make the numbers look, well, not so bad. Read up on the overall budget, and on the defense component.

Health Care proposals

Paul Krugman, liberal/progressive columnist of the NYTimes, offers an interesting comparison of the Clinton and the Obama health insurance proposals. Whether Krugman is correct or not is certainly debatable by the smarties in policy analysis. More information would have been helpful. This is the second column of Krugman's that favors Hillary over Barack.

Interesting article here from the Boston Globe on Massachusetts' efforts.
Spoiler alert: not going so well.

No group hugs here

Can't we all just get along? Well, actually, no. Not really since the late 1780s. So says Susan Dunn in a fine WP op-ed (aside from the claim that Obama doesn't understand that).

Greatest upset in Super Bowl history!

Congrats to the NY Football GIANTS!!!!! Amazing.

The "other" war (wars?)

Interesting article on the difficulties in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Strong words:

"Make no mistake, NATO is not winning in Afghanistan," warned an Atlantic Council of the United States report last week. The report was directed by retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, the former top NATO commander. "What is happening in Afghanistan and beyond its borders can have even greater strategic long-term consequences than the struggle in Iraq."

Chad

The African nation of Chad has some difficulties.