In a recent post, Kenneth Baer called "some Democrats" delusional to suggest we should leave Iraq, that "a tough-love purge won’t [work]"...as it's "a cop-out from confronting the grim reality of Iraq."

Well, apparently Hillary Clinton has joined ranks with We The Delusional who think time is up:

Instead of sending more U.S. troops to Iraq, as President Bush plan, Clinton said it is time to start re-deploying U.S. troops out of Iraq.

"That would really demonstrate to the Iraqis that we don't have an open-ended commitment," she said. "We are not going to be here providing protection for their leaders, which we do. We are not going to be here standing by and trying to be called in from time to time as they see fit. That is not in the cards."

Delusional, indeed.

In one of the Discussion Tables, we've started going through George Packer's excellent piece from a recent New Yorker, about taking a social sciences approach to understanding the terrorist threat:

...“There are elements in human psychological and social makeup that drive what’s happening. The Islamic bit is secondary. This is human behavior in an Islamic setting. This is not ‘Islamic behavior.’ ” Paraphrasing the American political scientist Roger D. Petersen, he said, “People don’t get pushed into rebellion by their ideology. They get pulled in by their social networks.”

The article also notes how information and media have become integral to this movement:

...“They switch between guerrilla activity and terrorist activity as they need to, in order to maintain the political momentum, and it’s all about an information operation that generates the perception of an unstoppable, growing insurgency.”

...An information strategy seems to be driving the agenda of every radical Islamist movement. Kilcullen noted that when insurgents ambush an American convoy in Iraq, “they’re not doing that because they want to reduce the number of Humvees we have in Iraq by one. They’re doing it because they want spectacular media footage of a burning Humvee.”

Join us over in the foreign policy table, if you'd like.

...to the Congress?

...the Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., threatened a filibuster to block any legislation expressing disapproval of Bush's strategy.

Well, he's new to the job. Hasn't learned we always need up or down votes.

President Bush:

This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We'll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.

Surge on...

Update: ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces raided the Iranian consulate office in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil on Thursday and arrested five employees, the official Iranian news agency IRNA said.

No more monkeybars for NYC kids:

...the city is developing a playground near the South Street Seaport that will have trained “play workers” on hand to help children interact with features of the new playground: water, ramps, sand and specially designed objects meant to spur the imagination.

...Based on child-development theories that children need to engage in social and fantasy play rather than just build physical skills...

An interesting connection to be made, perhaps, with the argument Steven Johnson lays out in "Everything Bad..." as well as, of course, the kind of social/community-based behavior we conduct here on the blogs.

Mr. Bartlett said that Mr. Bush would assure the public that America’s commitment to the Iraqi government is “not open-ended, that benchmarks have to be met that milestones have to be reached both on the security side, but just as importantly on the political and economic side.” --NYT

The rumors were true.

A new iPhone.

Hubba hubba.

Cheney is going hunting again. Heads down, folks. 

And I assume this is more of the manly kind of hunting, where you drive in an SUV over to where the birds are and then blast them with guns.

Hunting the way it was meant to be.