Iraq tours shortened (back) to 12 months

National Public Radio is a great news source and they promise news with context.  So it was an extreme disappointment to hear them parrot the Bush Administration's horn toot that Iraq tours of duty will be reduced to (the original) 12 months.

See, in April 2007, the Bush Administration increased tours of duty from 12 to 15 months as part of the "surge."

Go ahead and let the President have a quote about "helping soldiers and their families," but for God's sake tell the truth, too.  This isn't some sort of special benefit or policy, it's restoring the tours of duty to the length that soldiers actually signed up for. 

Oh, and "it won't apply to troops now serving."

Liberal media, my ass.

The power to declare war

An interesting look at the Constitutional authority to declare war, including a letter written by Abraham Lincoln on why it's important for Congress to retain it.

Paying for the war isn't the half of it

War is costly. We have a war in Iraq that's costing us $4 billion a year to support over 160,000 troops. And it was over in 1991.

America was still supporting vets from World War I until last year, 90 years later!

Get some more scary facts about the cost of war from Shadoweyes.

Comparing Vietnam and Iraq

I went to an interesting forum tonight on the Vietnam War era of the Democratic Party. We had two speakers who addressed the parallels to today's conflict in Iraq (they expressly avoided the term "war") and the political issues it generated - namely, the internal conflict between anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey.

The event was notable for its conversation after the speakers addressed the group, including a number of these thoughts:

• The draft: Would we be in Iraq if we didn't have the volunteer army, or so many mercenaries?
  
• The opposition: is our familiarity with visual violence the difference between campus activism and apathy? I mean, how many Bruce Willis movies does it take to make me unimpressed by bloody videos from Iraq?
• Peace: the opposition to Iraq is "anti-war." We changed the War Department to the Defense Department, but we still fight "wars." Are any of us for peace anymore?
• Victory is defeat: it felt like the "war" could change when Democrats took charge of Congress in 2006. Why hasn't it? And why are we debating this horseshit instead?