Political - Book Report

[Brad Haslett-2]

Re *Michael J. Totten*
The Real Iraq
*Michael Yon sees the country, and the war, without ideological blinders.*
16 May 2008

*Moment of Truth in
Iraq*<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0980076323/manhattaninstitu/>,
by Michael Yon (Richard Vigilante Books, 227 pp., $29.95)

Iraq is where ideologies go to die. Arab nationalism, Baathism,
anti-Americanism, al-Qaidism, Donald Rumsfeldism, and Moqtada al-Sadrism
have either died there or are dying. Conventional liberal opinion, more or
less correct about the foundering American war effort from 2004 to 2006, has
been severely bloodied—along with Iraq's worst insurgent groups and
militias—by General David Petraeus's leadership of the American troop surge.
Even post-9/11 fear of Islam has proven unsustainable for those who
regularly interact with ordinary Iraqis. Independent journalist Michael Yon,
who has spent more time embedded with combat soldiers in Iraq than any other
reporter, is a refreshingly unideological analyst of the war. His
self-published dispatches have earned him a loyal following around the
world, and he has set out to reach even more people with the publication of
a terrific new book, *Moment of Truth in Iraq*.

Yon begins his story *in medias res*. "We are in trouble, but we have a
great general," he writes on the eve of Arrowhead Ripper, the major battle
last summer against al-Qaida's terrorist army in Baqubah, just north of
Baghdad. Iraq was all but lost before the battle, when American forces under
Petraeus surged into the capital and beyond. Yon then takes us back in time
and to the northern city of Mosul, where Petraeus first proved that he knew
how to counter an insurgency by working with the local population and
protecting it from killers. Yon spent many months in Mosul embedded with the
1-24th Infantry Regiment, or "Deuce Four," and his first-person narrative of
firefights in the city's streets and alleys is relentless and gripping.

Despite Petraeus's early successes in Mosul, the city is now perhaps Iraq's
most violent. It slid back into chaos when the general's strategy was
discontinued after he completed his tour there and before he was appointed
the commander of American forces in Iraq. There are no final battles in
counterinsurgency warfare, as Yon makes clear, but if there were to be one
in Iraq, it most likely would take place in Mosul. Much of Iraq has now been
pacified—most famously and astonishingly in the formerly convulsive cities
of Fallujah <http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_2_fallujah.html> and
Ramadi, as well as in Baqubah, most of Baghdad, and regions further south.

*Moment of Truth in Iraq* isn't the journalistic equivalent of a war movie,
but parts of it could surely be used as the starting point for a screenplay.
(Such a film might easily perform
better<http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_urb-war.html>at the box
office than Hollywood's string of gloomy, axe-grinding Iraq
flicks have.) Still, Yon's book isn't just about explosions and carnage.
It's also about the new counterinsurgency strategy and, more important, the
Americans and Iraqis who risk their lives to make it work. When Iraq was
degenerating into its worst levels of violence, American soldiers spent too
much time behind their bases' walls, hoping to keep casualties to a minimum
and to avoid being seen as occupiers by the Iraqis. Today, they live and
work inside Iraq's cities and neighborhoods, where they tend to be welcomed,
if not as liberators then as protectors. Counterinsurgency is as much about
nation building and community policing as it is about war making.

"The American soldier is the most dangerous man in the world," Yon writes,
"and the Iraqis had to learn that before they would trust or respect us. But
it was when they understood that these great-hearted warriors, who so
enjoyed killing the enemy, are even happier helping to build a school or to
make a neighborhood safe that we really got their attention." Images of the
despicable abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib have become iconic for many
around the world. But anyone who has spent significant time with American
troops in Iraq, as I have, will recognize the truth in Yon's descriptions of
U.S. soldiers as usually decent and caring. "There are lots of kitchen
accidents in Iraq," he points out. "Kids get burned. American soldiers can't
take it when they see a kid get burned. If they are in the neighborhood on a
mission and they see a burned kid, they will cancel the mission to get the
kid to an American aid station, which, technically they shouldn't be doing."

Yon is a former Special Forces soldier, and his affection for the grunts in
the field is palpable. He takes their honor, courage, duty, and sacrifice
seriously in a way that most journalists don't—and perhaps can't. At heart,
he is as much a soldier as a reporter, but he is neither a propagandist for
the U.S. military nor a mouthpiece for its public affairs officers. He
nearly got himself thrown out of Iraq for an article in *The Weekly Standard
* challenging some top-level brass for trying to censor media coverage. And
he calls out both officers in the field and pundits back home who refuse to
admit that all has not always gone according to plan. "Combat soldiers have
little patience for less than unvarnished truth," he writes. "That's why I
spend so much time with infantry." Nothing makes a mockery of party lines
and spin from air-conditioned offices quite like facing snipers, ambushes,
and improvised explosive devices in 135-degree heat. Reality is more real in
Iraq than almost anywhere else.

But in distant places like Washington, eight time zones away, Iraq is more
of an abstraction. There is a left-wing Iraq and a right-wing Iraq, and they
only vaguely and occasionally resemble the actual place. Yon will have none
of either, which may be why no reporter who has covered the conflict—from
any country or for any newspaper or magazine—has managed to convey the truth
with such blistering accuracy. "Happy news for the Left was that U.S.
soldiers were demoralized and the war was being lost," he writes. "Happy
news for the Right was that there was no insurgency, then no civil war; we
always had enough troops, and we were winning hands-down, except for the
left-wing lunatics who were trying to unravel it all. They say heroin
addicts are happy, too, when they are out of touch with reality."

Iraq is a tragic, unhappy, and often disturbing place, but it's less
sinister and frightening up close than it is from a distance. That's because
it's a country striving for normality, whose normal aspects rarely make
their way into media reports that highlight violence, mayhem, and failure.
On TV, Iraq looks like a nation of masked, gun-toting fanatics, but in
person, one finds friendliness, solidarity, and reasonableness amid the
chaos. "Just because Iraqis have 'Allahu Akbar' on their flag," Yon writes,
"doesn't mean they're going to blow up the World Trade Center any more than
'In God We Trust' means we're going to attack Communist China." "Iraq does
not hate America," he insists. "If they hated us, I'd be urging an immediate
troop withdrawal, because there would be no hope of winning this war. If the
Iraqis hated us, we would be fighting the Iraqi Police and the Iraqi Army.
Instead, we're fighting alongside them."

Yon convincingly argues that the U.S. is winning in Iraq, at least for the
moment. "The enemy learned that our people and the Iraqi forces would close
in and kill them if they dared stand their ground. This is important: an
enemy forced to choose between dying or hiding inevitably loses legitimacy.
Legitimacy is essential. Men who must always either run or die are no longer
an army and are not going to found a caliphate." The outcome, though, is
still in doubt. If Petraeus's surge strategy fails or is prematurely
short-circuited by Congress, the American and Iraqi forces will almost
certainly lose. "Maybe creating a powerful democracy in the Middle East was
a foolish reason to go to war," Yon concludes. "Maybe it was never the
reason we went to war. But it is within our grasp now and nearly all the
hardest work has been done." Which makes the present moment the moment of
truth in Iraq.

*Michael J. Totten is a blogger <http://www.michaeltotten.com/> and
independent journalist who has made five trips to Iraq. His work has
appeared in the *New York Times*, the *Wall Street Journal*, and numerous
other publications. *The Week* named him Blogger of the Year in 2007 for his
dispatches from the Middle East.*
 ad Yon's book, well worth the time.  Brad

---------------------
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Use Rhodes22-list@..., Help? www.rhodes22.org/list

[Rob Lowe]

Brad,
Thanks for this review.  I just might have to read Yon's book.  Have you
read it?  It sounds well written and truthful. - Rob


----- Original Message -----
From: "Brad Haslett" <flybrad@...>
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list@...>
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 10:34 PM
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Political - Book Report


Re *Michael J. Totten*
The Real Iraq
*Michael Yon sees the country, and the war, without ideological blinders.*
16 May 2008

*Moment of Truth in
Iraq*<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0980076323/manhattaninstitu/>,
by Michael Yon (Richard Vigilante Books, 227 pp., $29.95)

Iraq is where ideologies go to die. Arab nationalism, Baathism,
anti-Americanism, al-Qaidism, Donald Rumsfeldism, and Moqtada al-Sadrism
have either died there or are dying. Conventional liberal opinion, more or
less correct about the foundering American war effort from 2004 to 2006, has
been severely bloodied—along with Iraq's worst insurgent groups and
militias—by General David Petraeus's leadership of the American troop surge.
Even post-9/11 fear of Islam has proven unsustainable for those who
regularly interact with ordinary Iraqis. Independent journalist Michael Yon,
who has spent more time embedded with combat soldiers in Iraq than any other
reporter, is a refreshingly unideological analyst of the war. His
self-published dispatches have earned him a loyal following around the
world, and he has set out to reach even more people with the publication of
a terrific new book, *Moment of Truth in Iraq*.

Yon begins his story *in medias res*. "We are in trouble, but we have a
great general," he writes on the eve of Arrowhead Ripper, the major battle
last summer against al-Qaida's terrorist army in Baqubah, just north of
Baghdad. Iraq was all but lost before the battle, when American forces under
Petraeus surged into the capital and beyond. Yon then takes us back in time
and to the northern city of Mosul, where Petraeus first proved that he knew
how to counter an insurgency by working with the local population and
protecting it from killers. Yon spent many months in Mosul embedded with the
1-24th Infantry Regiment, or "Deuce Four," and his first-person narrative of
firefights in the city's streets and alleys is relentless and gripping.

Despite Petraeus's early successes in Mosul, the city is now perhaps Iraq's
most violent. It slid back into chaos when the general's strategy was
discontinued after he completed his tour there and before he was appointed
the commander of American forces in Iraq. There are no final battles in
counterinsurgency warfare, as Yon makes clear, but if there were to be one
in Iraq, it most likely would take place in Mosul. Much of Iraq has now been
pacified—most famously and astonishingly in the formerly convulsive cities
of Fallujah <http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_2_fallujah.html> and
Ramadi, as well as in Baqubah, most of Baghdad, and regions further south.

*Moment of Truth in Iraq* isn't the journalistic equivalent of a war movie,
but parts of it could surely be used as the starting point for a screenplay.
(Such a film might easily perform
better<http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_urb-war.html>at the box
office than Hollywood's string of gloomy, axe-grinding Iraq
flicks have.) Still, Yon's book isn't just about explosions and carnage.
It's also about the new counterinsurgency strategy and, more important, the
Americans and Iraqis who risk their lives to make it work. When Iraq was
degenerating into its worst levels of violence, American soldiers spent too
much time behind their bases' walls, hoping to keep casualties to a minimum
and to avoid being seen as occupiers by the Iraqis. Today, they live and
work inside Iraq's cities and neighborhoods, where they tend to be welcomed,
if not as liberators then as protectors. Counterinsurgency is as much about
nation building and community policing as it is about war making.

"The American soldier is the most dangerous man in the world," Yon writes,
"and the Iraqis had to learn that before they would trust or respect us. But
it was when they understood that these great-hearted warriors, who so
enjoyed killing the enemy, are even happier helping to build a school or to
make a neighborhood safe that we really got their attention." Images of the
despicable abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib have become iconic for many
around the world. But anyone who has spent significant time with American
troops in Iraq, as I have, will recognize the truth in Yon's descriptions of
U.S. soldiers as usually decent and caring. "There are lots of kitchen
accidents in Iraq," he points out. "Kids get burned. American soldiers can't
take it when they see a kid get burned. If they are in the neighborhood on a
mission and they see a burned kid, they will cancel the mission to get the
kid to an American aid station, which, technically they shouldn't be doing."

Yon is a former Special Forces soldier, and his affection for the grunts in
the field is palpable. He takes their honor, courage, duty, and sacrifice
seriously in a way that most journalists don't—and perhaps can't. At heart,
he is as much a soldier as a reporter, but he is neither a propagandist for
the U.S. military nor a mouthpiece for its public affairs officers. He
nearly got himself thrown out of Iraq for an article in *The Weekly Standard
* challenging some top-level brass for trying to censor media coverage. And
he calls out both officers in the field and pundits back home who refuse to
admit that all has not always gone according to plan. "Combat soldiers have
little patience for less than unvarnished truth," he writes. "That's why I
spend so much time with infantry." Nothing makes a mockery of party lines
and spin from air-conditioned offices quite like facing snipers, ambushes,
and improvised explosive devices in 135-degree heat. Reality is more real in
Iraq than almost anywhere else.

But in distant places like Washington, eight time zones away, Iraq is more
of an abstraction. There is a left-wing Iraq and a right-wing Iraq, and they
only vaguely and occasionally resemble the actual place. Yon will have none
of either, which may be why no reporter who has covered the conflict—from
any country or for any newspaper or magazine—has managed to convey the truth
with such blistering accuracy. "Happy news for the Left was that U.S.
soldiers were demoralized and the war was being lost," he writes. "Happy
news for the Right was that there was no insurgency, then no civil war; we
always had enough troops, and we were winning hands-down, except for the
left-wing lunatics who were trying to unravel it all. They say heroin
addicts are happy, too, when they are out of touch with reality."

Iraq is a tragic, unhappy, and often disturbing place, but it's less
sinister and frightening up close than it is from a distance. That's because
it's a country striving for normality, whose normal aspects rarely make
their way into media reports that highlight violence, mayhem, and failure.
On TV, Iraq looks like a nation of masked, gun-toting fanatics, but in
person, one finds friendliness, solidarity, and reasonableness amid the
chaos. "Just because Iraqis have 'Allahu Akbar' on their flag," Yon writes,
"doesn't mean they're going to blow up the World Trade Center any more than
'In God We Trust' means we're going to attack Communist China." "Iraq does
not hate America," he insists. "If they hated us, I'd be urging an immediate
troop withdrawal, because there would be no hope of winning this war. If the
Iraqis hated us, we would be fighting the Iraqi Police and the Iraqi Army.
Instead, we're fighting alongside them."

Yon convincingly argues that the U.S. is winning in Iraq, at least for the
moment. "The enemy learned that our people and the Iraqi forces would close
in and kill them if they dared stand their ground. This is important: an
enemy forced to choose between dying or hiding inevitably loses legitimacy.
Legitimacy is essential. Men who must always either run or die are no longer
an army and are not going to found a caliphate." The outcome, though, is
still in doubt. If Petraeus's surge strategy fails or is prematurely
short-circuited by Congress, the American and Iraqi forces will almost
certainly lose. "Maybe creating a powerful democracy in the Middle East was
a foolish reason to go to war," Yon concludes. "Maybe it was never the
reason we went to war. But it is within our grasp now and nearly all the
hardest work has been done." Which makes the present moment the moment of
truth in Iraq.

*Michael J. Totten is a blogger <http://www.michaeltotten.com/> and
independent journalist who has made five trips to Iraq. His work has
appeared in the *New York Times*, the *Wall Street Journal*, and numerous
other publications. *The Week* named him Blogger of the Year in 2007 for his
dispatches from the Middle East.*
 ad Yon's book, well worth the time.  Brad

---------------------
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Use Rhodes22-list@..., Help? www.rhodes22.org/list


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[Brad Haslett-2]

Rob,

I finished it just before leaving.  Some of it is a re-hash of articles he
has published on his website over the years but good none-the-less. Yon is
pretty objective but as a former Special Forces guy and having spent so much
time with the troops, he's susceptible to cheer leading on their behalf.
That said, he's objective about the politics.  You'll enjoy the book!

Brad

On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 1:25 PM, Rob Lowe <rlowe@...> wrote:

> Brad,
> Thanks for this review.  I just might have to read Yon's book.  Have you
> read it?  It sounds well written and truthful. - Rob
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brad Haslett" <flybrad@...>
> To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list@...>
> Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 10:34 PM
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Political - Book Report
>
>
> Re *Michael J. Totten*
> The Real Iraq
> *Michael Yon sees the country, and the war, without ideological blinders.*
> 16 May 2008
>
> *Moment of Truth in
> Iraq*<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0980076323/manhattaninstitu/
> >,
> by Michael Yon (Richard Vigilante Books, 227 pp., $29.95)
>
> Iraq is where ideologies go to die. Arab nationalism, Baathism,
> anti-Americanism, al-Qaidism, Donald Rumsfeldism, and Moqtada al-Sadrism
> have either died there or are dying. Conventional liberal opinion, more or
> less correct about the foundering American war effort from 2004 to 2006,
> has
> been severely bloodied—along with Iraq's worst insurgent groups and
> militias—by General David Petraeus's leadership of the American troop
> surge.
> Even post-9/11 fear of Islam has proven unsustainable for those who
> regularly interact with ordinary Iraqis. Independent journalist Michael
> Yon,
> who has spent more time embedded with combat soldiers in Iraq than any
> other
> reporter, is a refreshingly unideological analyst of the war. His
> self-published dispatches have earned him a loyal following around the
> world, and he has set out to reach even more people with the publication of
> a terrific new book, *Moment of Truth in Iraq*.
>
> Yon begins his story *in medias res*. "We are in trouble, but we have a
> great general," he writes on the eve of Arrowhead Ripper, the major battle
> last summer against al-Qaida's terrorist army in Baqubah, just north of
> Baghdad. Iraq was all but lost before the battle, when American forces
> under
> Petraeus surged into the capital and beyond. Yon then takes us back in time
> and to the northern city of Mosul, where Petraeus first proved that he knew
> how to counter an insurgency by working with the local population and
> protecting it from killers. Yon spent many months in Mosul embedded with
> the
> 1-24th Infantry Regiment, or "Deuce Four," and his first-person narrative
> of
> firefights in the city's streets and alleys is relentless and gripping.
>
> Despite Petraeus's early successes in Mosul, the city is now perhaps Iraq's
> most violent. It slid back into chaos when the general's strategy was
> discontinued after he completed his tour there and before he was appointed
> the commander of American forces in Iraq. There are no final battles in
> counterinsurgency warfare, as Yon makes clear, but if there were to be one
> in Iraq, it most likely would take place in Mosul. Much of Iraq has now
> been
> pacified—most famously and astonishingly in the formerly convulsive cities
> of Fallujah <http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_2_fallujah.html> and
> Ramadi, as well as in Baqubah, most of Baghdad, and regions further south.
>
> *Moment of Truth in Iraq* isn't the journalistic equivalent of a war movie,
> but parts of it could surely be used as the starting point for a
> screenplay.
> (Such a film might easily perform
> better<http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_urb-war.html>at the box
> office than Hollywood's string of gloomy, axe-grinding Iraq
> flicks have.) Still, Yon's book isn't just about explosions and carnage.
> It's also about the new counterinsurgency strategy and, more important, the
> Americans and Iraqis who risk their lives to make it work. When Iraq was
> degenerating into its worst levels of violence, American soldiers spent too
> much time behind their bases' walls, hoping to keep casualties to a minimum
> and to avoid being seen as occupiers by the Iraqis. Today, they live and
> work inside Iraq's cities and neighborhoods, where they tend to be
> welcomed,
> if not as liberators then as protectors. Counterinsurgency is as much about
> nation building and community policing as it is about war making.
>
> "The American soldier is the most dangerous man in the world," Yon writes,
> "and the Iraqis had to learn that before they would trust or respect us.
> But
> it was when they understood that these great-hearted warriors, who so
> enjoyed killing the enemy, are even happier helping to build a school or to
> make a neighborhood safe that we really got their attention." Images of the
> despicable abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib have become iconic for many
> around the world. But anyone who has spent significant time with American
> troops in Iraq, as I have, will recognize the truth in Yon's descriptions
> of
> U.S. soldiers as usually decent and caring. "There are lots of kitchen
> accidents in Iraq," he points out. "Kids get burned. American soldiers
> can't
> take it when they see a kid get burned. If they are in the neighborhood on
> a
> mission and they see a burned kid, they will cancel the mission to get the
> kid to an American aid station, which, technically they shouldn't be
> doing."
>
> Yon is a former Special Forces soldier, and his affection for the grunts in
> the field is palpable. He takes their honor, courage, duty, and sacrifice
> seriously in a way that most journalists don't—and perhaps can't. At heart,
> he is as much a soldier as a reporter, but he is neither a propagandist for
> the U.S. military nor a mouthpiece for its public affairs officers. He
> nearly got himself thrown out of Iraq for an article in *The Weekly
> Standard
> * challenging some top-level brass for trying to censor media coverage. And
> he calls out both officers in the field and pundits back home who refuse to
> admit that all has not always gone according to plan. "Combat soldiers have
> little patience for less than unvarnished truth," he writes. "That's why I
> spend so much time with infantry." Nothing makes a mockery of party lines
> and spin from air-conditioned offices quite like facing snipers, ambushes,
> and improvised explosive devices in 135-degree heat. Reality is more real
> in
> Iraq than almost anywhere else.
>
> But in distant places like Washington, eight time zones away, Iraq is more
> of an abstraction. There is a left-wing Iraq and a right-wing Iraq, and
> they
> only vaguely and occasionally resemble the actual place. Yon will have none
> of either, which may be why no reporter who has covered the conflict—from
> any country or for any newspaper or magazine—has managed to convey the
> truth
> with such blistering accuracy. "Happy news for the Left was that U.S.
> soldiers were demoralized and the war was being lost," he writes. "Happy
> news for the Right was that there was no insurgency, then no civil war; we
> always had enough troops, and we were winning hands-down, except for the
> left-wing lunatics who were trying to unravel it all. They say heroin
> addicts are happy, too, when they are out of touch with reality."
>
> Iraq is a tragic, unhappy, and often disturbing place, but it's less
> sinister and frightening up close than it is from a distance. That's
> because
> it's a country striving for normality, whose normal aspects rarely make
> their way into media reports that highlight violence, mayhem, and failure.
> On TV, Iraq looks like a nation of masked, gun-toting fanatics, but in
> person, one finds friendliness, solidarity, and reasonableness amid the
> chaos. "Just because Iraqis have 'Allahu Akbar' on their flag," Yon writes,
> "doesn't mean they're going to blow up the World Trade Center any more than
> 'In God We Trust' means we're going to attack Communist China." "Iraq does
> not hate America," he insists. "If they hated us, I'd be urging an
> immediate
> troop withdrawal, because there would be no hope of winning this war. If
> the
> Iraqis hated us, we would be fighting the Iraqi Police and the Iraqi Army.
> Instead, we're fighting alongside them."
>
> Yon convincingly argues that the U.S. is winning in Iraq, at least for the
> moment. "The enemy learned that our people and the Iraqi forces would close
> in and kill them if they dared stand their ground. This is important: an
> enemy forced to choose between dying or hiding inevitably loses legitimacy.
> Legitimacy is essential. Men who must always either run or die are no
> longer
> an army and are not going to found a caliphate." The outcome, though, is
> still in doubt. If Petraeus's surge strategy fails or is prematurely
> short-circuited by Congress, the American and Iraqi forces will almost
> certainly lose. "Maybe creating a powerful democracy in the Middle East was
> a foolish reason to go to war," Yon concludes. "Maybe it was never the
> reason we went to war. But it is within our grasp now and nearly all the
> hardest work has been done." Which makes the present moment the moment of
> truth in Iraq.
>
> *Michael J. Totten is a blogger <http://www.michaeltotten.com/> and
> independent journalist who has made five trips to Iraq. His work has
> appeared in the *New York Times*, the *Wall Street Journal*, and numerous
> other publications. *The Week* named him Blogger of the Year in 2007 for
> his
> dispatches from the Middle East.*
>  ad Yon's book, well worth the time.  Brad
>
> ---------------------
> __________________________________________________
> Use Rhodes22-list@..., Help? www.rhodes22.org/list
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Use Rhodes22-list@..., Help? www.rhodes22.org/list
>

__________________________________________________
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[Rob Lowe]

Brad,
Thanks.  I think I will have to check it out.

Heads up on another book I just read about.  Senator Jim Webb from Virginia
has just had published a new book.
http://www.amazon.com/Time-Fight-Reclaiming-Fair-America/dp/0767928350

I'm proud to have him as my Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Not
your typical politician.  He's now sponsored legislation in the Senate to
give veterans expanded educational opportunities, which the Bush
administration is opposing.

I know you've speculated on running mates and such for the upcoming
election.  Our local paper is suggesting Webb might be a potential VP
candidate.  It would make some sense.   He has the military background the
neither the Democrats have to counter McCain's service and would help
attract blue collar voters that Barrack seems to have some trouble with.
While I would hate to loose him as a Senator, I certainly see the intrigue.
We shall see. - rob

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brad Haslett" <flybrad@...>
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list@...>
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 6:32 PM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Political - Book Report


Rob,

I finished it just before leaving.  Some of it is a re-hash of articles he
has published on his website over the years but good none-the-less. Yon is
pretty objective but as a former Special Forces guy and having spent so much
time with the troops, he's susceptible to cheer leading on their behalf.
That said, he's objective about the politics.  You'll enjoy the book!

Brad



__________________________________________________
Use Rhodes22-list@..., Help? www.rhodes22.org/list

[Tootle]

Rob said, "I'm proud to have him as my Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Not
your typical politician.  He's now sponsored legislation in the Senate to
give veterans expanded educational opportunities, which the Bush
administration is opposing.

I know you've speculated on running mates and such for the upcoming
election.  Our local paper is suggesting Webb might be a potential VP
candidate.  It would make some sense.   He has the military background the
neither the Democrats have to counter McCain's service and would help
attract blue collar voters that Barrack seems to have some trouble with.
While I would hate to loose him as a Senator, I certainly see the intrigue.
We shall see. - rob

Rob said, "We shall see."  I guess Rob wants to see his graphic sexual discriptions reprinted in all the mass media.  Sure Rob.  I would rather see a candidate presenting a forceful but respected public appearance.  Were you client 10?

Ed K
Greenville, SC, USA
Addendum:  "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.... And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion." - George Washington

[Brad Haslett-2]

Robb,

Webb seems to garner a lot of respect on both sides of the isle.  I'll put
his book in the queue because I'm really interested in reading his thoughts
on globalization. I've read the reports that his name is being kicked around
as a running mate for the Bamboozler.  That would be a mistake for Webb,
he'd be better served looking at the top spot down the road. Bobby Jindal is
being proposed as a running mate with McCain.  Louisiana needs him as
Governor worse and he'll get his shot at the top soon enough.  Unless Webb
is willing to "take a bullet" for the party, he and Virginia are probably
better off if he passes on this one.

Brad

On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 9:21 PM, Rob Lowe <rlowe@...> wrote:

> Brad,
> Thanks.  I think I will have to check it out.
>
> Heads up on another book I just read about.  Senator Jim Webb from Virginia
> has just had published a new book.
> http://www.amazon.com/Time-Fight-Reclaiming-Fair-America/dp/0767928350
>
> I'm proud to have him as my Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Not
> your typical politician.  He's now sponsored legislation in the Senate to
> give veterans expanded educational opportunities, which the Bush
> administration is opposing.
>
> I know you've speculated on running mates and such for the upcoming
> election.  Our local paper is suggesting Webb might be a potential VP
> candidate.  It would make some sense.   He has the military background the
> neither the Democrats have to counter McCain's service and would help
> attract blue collar voters that Barrack seems to have some trouble with.
> While I would hate to loose him as a Senator, I certainly see the intrigue.
> We shall see. - rob
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brad Haslett" <flybrad@...>
> To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list@...>
> Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 6:32 PM
> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Political - Book Report
>
>
> Rob,
>
> I finished it just before leaving.  Some of it is a re-hash of articles he
> has published on his website over the years but good none-the-less. Yon is
> pretty objective but as a former Special Forces guy and having spent so
> much
> time with the troops, he's susceptible to cheer leading on their behalf.
> That said, he's objective about the politics.  You'll enjoy the book!
>
> Brad
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Use Rhodes22-list@..., Help? www.rhodes22.org/list
>

__________________________________________________
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[Brad Haslett-2]

Ed,

You know something I don't know?  I'm sure there are a lot of DC types
sleeping uncomfortable these days waiting for "the other shoe to drop" from
the DC Madam bust. You'd think after 'Horndog Bill' the electorate would be
immune to this stuff.  On the other hand, don't be surprised if another
video comes out soon from Trinity.  Supposedly there is a video of Michelle
O on a "hate whitey rage" in front of the congregation.  I tried to read her
undergrad thesis but could only stomach about five pages. "Racial healer" my
ass! That woman has some serious problems and there's a good reason the
O'messiah thinks she should be off limits. Don't be shocked if Hillary
throws a firebomb before the convention.  McCain won't use it but some 527
will (and I'll donate money to see it keep being played).  Anyone who thinks
the Clintons are finished don't know the Clintons.  Life is strange - I
never thought I'd be empathizing with those two.

On a different political note, here's how the game is played in other
countries.

http://www.anorak.co.uk/politicians/184076.html

Brad

On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 9:46 PM, Tootle <ekroposki@...> wrote:

>
> Rob said, "I'm proud to have him as my Senator from the Commonwealth of
> Virginia.  Not
> your typical politician.  He's now sponsored legislation in the Senate to
> give veterans expanded educational opportunities, which the Bush
> administration is opposing.
>
> I know you've speculated on running mates and such for the upcoming
> election.  Our local paper is suggesting Webb might be a potential VP
> candidate.  It would make some sense.   He has the military background the
> neither the Democrats have to counter McCain's service and would help
> attract blue collar voters that Barrack seems to have some trouble with.
> While I would hate to loose him as a Senator, I certainly see the intrigue.
> We shall see. - rob
>
> Rob said, "We shall see."  I guess Rob wants to see his graphic sexual
> discriptions reprinted in all the mass media.  Sure Rob.  I would rather
> see
> a candidate presenting a forceful but respected public appearance.  Were
> you
> client 10?
>
> Ed K
> Greenville, SC, USA
> Addendum:  "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political
> prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.... And let us
> with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained
> without
> religion." - George Washington
> --
> View this message in context:
> http://www.nabble.com/Political---Book-Report-tp17287492p17340737.html
> Sent from the Rhodes 22 mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
> __________________________________________________
> Use Rhodes22-list@..., Help? www.rhodes22.org/list
>

__________________________________________________
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[Rob Lowe]

Brad,
Yes, I think Virginia would be better off if he sat out.  But from the
Democrats standpoint, they would love to win Virginia and Webb might help
there.  They Dems haven't won this state in years in a presidential race.
But this year they could possibly win it even if Webb sat out as the state
has elected two Democratic governors in a row now.  One of those, Mark
Warner, is running for the seat of retiring John Warner (no relation), long
time Republican Senator from Virginia.  Good chance he will win it (his
opponent in another former Governor, Jim Gilmore), which would give the
Democrats an additional Senate seat.  Should Webb's seat come open if he ran
and won the VP's position, there is a good chance the Republicans could take
that seat back, resulting in no net change.  I've heard some good things
about Jindal.  It's too bad when national politics takes well needed people
out of states that need them. - rob



----- Original Message -----
From: "Brad Haslett" <flybrad@...>
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list@...>
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 9:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Political - Book Report


> Robb,
>
> Webb seems to garner a lot of respect on both sides of the isle.  I'll put
> his book in the queue because I'm really interested in reading his
thoughts
> on globalization. I've read the reports that his name is being kicked
around
> as a running mate for the Bamboozler.  That would be a mistake for Webb,
> he'd be better served looking at the top spot down the road. Bobby Jindal
is

> being proposed as a running mate with McCain.  Louisiana needs him as
> Governor worse and he'll get his shot at the top soon enough.  Unless Webb
> is willing to "take a bullet" for the party, he and Virginia are probably
> better off if he passes on this one.
>
> Brad
>
> On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 9:21 PM, Rob Lowe <rlowe@...> wrote:
>
> > Brad,
> > Thanks.  I think I will have to check it out.
> >
> > Heads up on another book I just read about.  Senator Jim Webb from

Virginia
> > has just had published a new book.
> > http://www.amazon.com/Time-Fight-Reclaiming-Fair-America/dp/0767928350
> >
> > I'm proud to have him as my Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Not
> > your typical politician.  He's now sponsored legislation in the Senate
to
> > give veterans expanded educational opportunities, which the Bush
> > administration is opposing.
> >
> > I know you've speculated on running mates and such for the upcoming
> > election.  Our local paper is suggesting Webb might be a potential VP
> > candidate.  It would make some sense.   He has the military background
the
> > neither the Democrats have to counter McCain's service and would help
> > attract blue collar voters that Barrack seems to have some trouble with.
> > While I would hate to loose him as a Senator, I certainly see the
intrigue.

> > We shall see. - rob
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Brad Haslett" <flybrad@...>
> > To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list@...>
> > Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 6:32 PM
> > Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Political - Book Report
> >
> >
> > Rob,
> >
> > I finished it just before leaving.  Some of it is a re-hash of articles

he
> > has published on his website over the years but good none-the-less. Yon
is

> > pretty objective but as a former Special Forces guy and having spent so
> > much
> > time with the troops, he's susceptible to cheer leading on their behalf.
> > That said, he's objective about the politics.  You'll enjoy the book!
> >
> > Brad
> >
> >
> >
> > __________________________________________________
> > Use Rhodes22-list@..., Help? www.rhodes22.org/list
> >
> __________________________________________________
> Use Rhodes22-list@..., Help? www.rhodes22.org/list

__________________________________________________
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