NY Observer > The Pentagon http://www.observer.com/taxonomy/term/25901/feed Articles from Observer.com en E-Mail Can Ruin Your Life http://www.observer.com/2007/e-mail-can-ruin-your-life When David Shipley, editor of the New York Times Op-Ed page, and Will Schwalbe, editor in chief of H  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/2007/e-mail-can-ruin-your-life#comments Arts & Culture Bill Clinton Paul Bogaards The Pentagon Will Schwalbe Sun, 15 Apr 2007 20:00:00 -0400 Spencer Morgan 37115 at http://www.observer.com Latter-Day Jeremiah Bashes Bush, Pentagon http://www.observer.com/node/36683 In July 2004, Zogby International Surveys interviewed 3,300 Arabs in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/36683#comments Arts & Culture Chalmers Johnson George W. Bush Kosovo The Pentagon Sun, 11 Feb 2007 19:00:00 -0500 Glenn C. Altschuler 36683 at http://www.observer.com Tom Ricks Doesn't Want to Be Called A Lefty (Jump In, Tom, the Water's Fine) http://www.observer.com/node/33604 Tom Ricks of the Washington Post is ticked that I said he is on "the left" (in my last item re Obama). He wrote me a note, here's the exchange:
TR: Describing Iraq as a Hobbesian state worse than a civil war makes one a leftist? That would be a surprise to the Army major in Baghdad who first used the term in a discussion with me. Under your definition, the Defense Intelligence Agency is a leftist organization. Cheers...

PW: Nice appearance. Yep, I made the assumption which I make of most mainstream reporters, esp ones that write about Fiascos in Iraq, that they're on the left. Certainly that was the function Meet the Press assigned to you: to represent the left. If I'm wrong, I'm happy to run your response... Also: can I score your book from someone?

TR: Here's my response: "It's a rookie mistake to assume things, especially when you can check them out. It must be a real luxury to be able to make things up. If you had read my book, you'd know it isn't a book of my opinion, but instead is based on hundreds of interviews and a review of 37,000 pages of documents." You can get the book at the bookstore.

The only thing I want to retract is describing my judgment of Ricks's politics as an "assumption" (putting it in the same category as his false assumption I'm a newby). It was a characterization, and I stand by it.

1, Meet the Press assembled a roundtable of four: two neocons, a centrist (CFR's Richard Haass), and a lib/left voice: Ricks. It's too bad that Anatol Lieven or Dan Swanson, someone truly on the left, isn't at the table, but that's just the way the American cookie crumbles now. The Washington Post is a liberal publication. 2, I mentioned Ricks last summer when he made the brave comment on Howard Kurtz's show that the Israeli generals were leaving some Hezbollah rockets intact so that the civilian-deaths wouldn't just pile up on one side, Lebanon. Brave, because Ricks, who as I recall based his statement on informed speculation at the Pentagon, was thereby defying an iron law of the conventional wisdom: Israel is fighting for its existence, not to maintain the perception that it's David to an Arab Goliath. The Israel lobby went crazy, and Ricks and the Post backed down, alas (with Ricks saying drily that he was going to go back to a noncontentious issue: Iraq). But let's be clear: Ricks's willingness to question Israeli motives places him firmly where Russert put him, on the left side of the discourse. 3, Ricks's claim that the Pentagon's DIA is neutral shows how little he understands of the ideological matrix in which we work. As I've said many times on this blog, with the elites signing off on the Iraq calamity, from the New Yorker magazine to Hillary Clinton, the military is our best hope as the braintrust of the antiwar movement. Cindy Sheehan isn't far removed from the colonels who are talking to Seymour Hersh, and probably to Ricks, too. Last spring, West Point hosted Noam Chomsky, the Naval War College hosted Walt and Mearsheimer (when these important intellectuals are in mainstream purdah). The guys in uniform who are being called upon to make the only real sacrifice here are also the ones looking for real ideas (like, Talking to Syria). Navy Secretary Winter is pushing for a "hearts and minds" battle with Islam, not a hot war.

I understand why Ricks is ticked. He's a soi-disant professional and doesn't want to be ideologically punched. It might damage his credibility. Not in my book. When Ricks said on Meet the Press that the Iraq war was "probably...the most profligate and worst decision in the history of American foreign policy," he was a brave speaker of truth, and also mirroring the military's best judgment, which is now on the left of the discourse. The good minds in the defense establishment occupy the same position as State Department Arabists do when the political parties and the executive sign off on illegal Israeli settlements. Tom Ricks can't cop to this. His problem, not mine.

]]> http://www.observer.com/node/33604#comments Iraq The Pentagon The Washington Post Company Tom Ricks Fri, 15 Dec 2006 03:09:01 -0500 Observer Staff 33604 at http://www.observer.com "It's a Number" http://www.observer.com/node/29478 Shortly before 9:00 a.m. this morning, the Pentagon announced that the number of U.S. troops who have died in Iraq has reached 2,500.

In the wake of the announcement, the following happened:

Fox News released the results of a Fox News poll touting a five point rise in Bush's approval ratings.

White House spokesperson Tony Snow responded to reporters' questions about the death toll with the opening line, "It's a number. And every time there's one of these 500 benchmarks, people want something."

House Republicans and Democrats went head to head over a Republican-proposed resolution that says, among other things, that an "arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment" of troops is not in the national interest.

And People magazine reported that Jessica Simpson likes to kiss with her eyes open.

-- Lizzy Ratner]]> http://www.observer.com/node/29478#comments Politics FOX News Network LLC Iraq People Magazine The Pentagon Thu, 15 Jun 2006 11:55:00 -0400 Observer Staff 29478 at http://www.observer.com Through a Glass, Darkly: Exorcising the Pentagon http://www.observer.com/node/52237 James Carroll claims to have left the priesthood in the early 1970’s.  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/52237#comments Arts & Culture Berlin Wall James Carroll John F. Kennedy The Pentagon Sun, 21 May 2006 20:00:00 -0400 Charles Taylor 52237 at http://www.observer.com Through a Glass, Darkly: Exorcising the Pentagon http://www.observer.com/node/38872 James Carroll claims to have left the priesthood in the early 1970’s.  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/38872#comments Arts & Culture James Carroll John F. Kennedy The Pentagon U.S.S.R. Sun, 21 May 2006 20:00:00 -0400 Charles Taylor 38872 at http://www.observer.com Critics Assail Rumsfeld, But What Is Their Plan? http://www.observer.com/node/38721 So The New York Times has found six generals who want Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to resign  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/38721#comments Donald H. Rumsfeld Iran Iraq The Pentagon Sun, 23 Apr 2006 20:00:00 -0400 Richard Brookhiser 38721 at http://www.observer.com Three Years Later, No End in Sight http://www.observer.com/node/38597 After three years, tens of thousands of lost and ruined lives, hundreds of billions of squandered do  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/38597#comments Politics Manhattan The Pentagon United Nations Sun, 26 Mar 2006 19:00:00 -0500 Joe Conason 38597 at http://www.observer.com A Question for KT http://www.observer.com/node/28771 (Yes, today is KT day. Sorry. It'll be over soon.)

A reader writes: "If as she claims she rose among Kissinger's typing pool, did she type the transcripts of his wiretaps?"

She's on Hardball today at 5. Maybe Matthews can ask her.

Also, no reply yet from KT spokesman on why the candidate doesn't use punctuation with her initials.

UPDATE: McFarland spokesman William O'Reilly emails: "She started being called that at the Pentagon by people working for her. I have no problem with the periods, though."]]> http://www.observer.com/node/28771#comments Politics The Pentagon William O'Reilly Mon, 06 Mar 2006 10:18:26 -0500 Observer Staff 28771 at http://www.observer.com Weather, War and Ms. Flanagan- Fresh Word of American Disasters http://www.observer.com/node/51929 First, the bad news: Two new books are going to forcefully remind us of the long-term disaster we’  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/51929#comments Arts & Culture David Mitchell Houghton Mifflin Company The Pentagon Sun, 05 Mar 2006 19:00:00 -0500 Adam Begley 51929 at http://www.observer.com