I've often said that if the dime store field marshals in charge of our woebegone war in Iraq had put the same effort into winning it that they put into spinning it, they wouldn't have to spin it.  

So it's little surprise to me that as the White House brings in former Secretary of State James Baker to patch together a new Iraq strategy, our current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is cooking up a new public relations campaign to defend his old Iraq strategy.

Cross posted at the front page of My Left Wing.

The Rovewellian brainwash we're hearing in support of our failed wars is positive proof that the pen is, indeed, mightier than the sword.  The Bush administration continues to use the written and spoken word to garner support for military actions in a conflict that our generals admit has no military solution.  

Remember back when the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) became the Struggle Against Violent Extremism for about five minutes?  

Jammed off the radar by bad news from Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan and America's other warfare related foreign policy fumbles is another issue that bodes ill for the ability of "the mightiest nation in history" to favorably influence international relationships.  As Tom Wright of the New York Times reports, key global trade talks have gone down the flusher.

Under the fold: failure on all fronts

Germany's Deutche Welle reported Sunday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is entering the Middle East arena with "few friends for company," and described the United States as "increasingly estranged from European and Arab allies" over the Israel-Lebanon crisis.

Under the fold: where in the world is Condi Rice, and why?

The New York Times reports that today that the U.S. is " rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon."

Under the fold: the appearance of being an honest broker

Wittingly or unwittingly, at least two major U.S. news networks are conducting a major information operation in support of the Israel-Lebanon War.  

All morning, MSNBC and CNN have been broadcasting footage of Israeli tanks and troops forming up on Lebanon's southern border.  (I haven't been watching Fox, for all I know they're doing the same thing.)  On scene reporters and analysts are describing how engineering units are moving up, ostensibly to clear away any mine fields or other obstructions prior to the launch of an assault, raid or full scale invasion.

Under the fold: who's side are they on?

As it has several times in the past few years, talk of reinstating a military draft is bubbling to the surface again.  Some fear that a draft would be used as a tool by the neoconservatives to support the prolonged war in Iraq and other "optional" armed conflicts.  Others--including, perhaps surprisingly, some fairly prominent voices from the political left--think a draft might be a good idea.  

I think it's highly unlikely that the Bush administration will try to bring the draft back, regardless of how the November elections turn out, largely for fear that whatever support for the Iraq war still exists would drop out of the bottom.  Still, the pros and cons of resuming a national military conscription is worthy of attention in the national debate because adoption or rejection of such a policy could have a major effect on America's role in the Next World Order.

Under the fold: draft kids, draft beer, draft horses, draft manuscripts...?

Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard wants the U.S. to use the current Israel-Lebanon confrontation as an excuse to attack Iran.  Coming from the guy who wanted to use any excuse to invade Iraq, that's hardly surprising.  

Under the fold: behind the curtain of Kristol's neo-confederacy...