Tag Archives: president clinton

Winning By Not Winning In Iraq and Syria

Posted on by

U.S. airstrikes have slowed the progress of Islamic State fighters, but the war may drag on for years. Why that's good for us. [Credit: Telegraph]

U.S. airstrikes have slowed the progress of Islam­ic State fight­ers, but the war may drag on for years. Why that’s good for us. [Cred­it: Telegraph]

The Pres­i­dent was asked a sim­ple ques­tion a few weeks ago: are we win­ning the war against the Islam­ic State?

He wouldn’t answer the ques­tion direct­ly, so I will.  We’re win­ning in Iraq and Syr­ia by not win­ning.  The net effect of our actions has so far been to keep extrem­ist Mus­lims of var­i­ous eth­nic­i­ties and sec­tar­i­an pas­sions engaged in war against … each oth­er.  And that may be the best pos­si­ble out­come in the cir­cum­stances. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Presidents, Reality TV and Technical Truth-Telling

Posted on by
People say the darndest things when "Cheaters" host Joey Greco catches them in compromising positions. Presidents, too, sometimes find themselves on the defensive. When they do, we should think carefully about what they're saying.

Peo­ple say the darn­d­est things when “Cheaters” host Joey Gre­co catch­es them in com­pro­mis­ing posi­tions. Pres­i­dents, too, some­times find them­selves on the defen­sive. When they do, we should think care­ful­ly about what they’re saying.

Admit it. You enjoyed the eight-year real­i­ty show that was the Clin­ton White House as much as I did. Before there was “Cheaters,” there was the Pres­i­dent lyin’ and denyin.’ Before there was a “Real House­wives” fran­chise, there were rumors of the First Lady throw­ing a lamp (or was it a Bible?) at her hus­band (or was it a Secret Ser­vice agent)?  Before we were Keep­ing Up with the Kar­dashi­ans, we were delight­ing to gos­sip about the First Fam­i­ly of Dys­func­tion. The sto­ries didn’t have to be true, only believ­able. And they almost always were.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →