The thunderstorms cleared out the humidity last night. I roused briefly at three, glanced at the clock and drifted off again, strangely content, considering the news of the last two weeks, and the prospects of what is still to come.   The alarm clock did its raucous thing at 0445 and I got up […]

  I was startled by the power of the Te Deum, the praise to God. There was plenty to be concerned about this day but I let it go. Cyber-hackers and global terrorists could take the afternoon off. Being as close as I was to the stage, and center, I felt I was sitting with […]

There are strategies and strategies. I had a turgid discussion about tactical withdrawals last night, how my partner and I could remove ourselves from our current positions and re-deploy our limited forces on a more secure front.   I did not intend to be combative, but if that was your perception, I have to accept […]

  It is Armed Forces Day today, and the anniversary of the introduction of the Nylon Stocking. The hose arrived in 1940, on the market just long enough to become an essential wardrobe item for a generation of women and for those vertical seams to get burned into the collective consciousness of a generation of […]

  O.K., so the State of Israel came into existence on this day, just after midnight, when the Americans were just leaving work in Washington. The United States had recognized the new Jewish state as a sort of off-hand, end-of-the-day action over the objection of Secretary of State George C. Marshall.   David ben-Gurion ceased […]

It was cold this morning. Late Spring, so the window had been left wide open.  I awake at 0500 in darkness. No dawn yet. I had the horrible feeling I’d overslept; that I was late for the early shift in the Bunker. I have just had a particularly vivid dream and my pulse is racing.  […]

12 May 2004 Strong Najasa The video is grainy, but in this war of images it does not have to be perfect. Fox News published he video-grab. They did not include the web address of the Islamist site that posted the streaming video. I’m sure the prurient interest would have crashed their server. Fox helpfully […]

13 May 2004 Culture Shock I understand Don Rumsfeld is in Baghdad this morning, a surprise trip to visit the leadership of the occupying forces. I don’t know what the motivation is, or the action-items he wants to achieve. I would not want to be on the receiving end of the visit. The debacle in […]

  Major General Gen. Antonio M. Taguba is going to testify to Congress today. He will be questioned by the Senate Armed Services Committee about the scathing report he wrote documenting the systematic pattern of abuse against the detainees in Iraq. He will presumably be asked about the OGA, who is apparently responsible for some […]

  Well, I must say that things don’t make a great deal of sense this morning.   Secretary Rumsfeld was pretty impressive on the Hill yesterday, and he said many of the right things, and seemed sincere in his apology to the abused Iraqis, and even offered some of them compensation. So the Department seems […]