Center for a New American Security

Nick Francona -- U.S. Marine, Penn graduate and all-around American Hero -- emailed me to wish me a Merry Christmas and to say he gave me a shout out on ESPN.com. Nick's story is a pretty incredible one, and I for one am really resisting the urge to make a comment about the patriotism of Red Sox fans as compared with fans of another club (that will go unnamed lest I draw the wrath of the Jeter-loving Lady Muqawama). But if you happen to be a fan of baseball, read this article. Go Red Sox, and Semper Fi.

First up is Fred Kaplan's post on Slate on COIN vs. CT. I have a lot of thoughts on this which I will share later. Until then, discuss this in the comments.

Second is Jason Gay's hilarious tribute to Curt Schilling. I met Schilling a few years ago, and he was just the coolest dude. He genuinely seemed more excited to meet a veteran of Afghanistan than I was to meet the ace of the Red Sox. I signed a book for him, and he gave me an autographed baseball. Schilling is loud and pompous and tiresome, sure, but also tough and genuine and pretty much the best damn postseason pitcher of the past 50 years.

Abu Muqawama is a big fan of the statistical revolution that has swept baseball, but there is something wrong when a guy throws a freaking no-hitter and grades out at A-. A minus?!

Update: Charlie, here. Check out Joe Posnanski's excellent write up. (Baseball fans should add Joe's blog to their bookmarks...right after Fire Joe Morgan.) And Charlie can't help but reflect a bit on the cancer survivor element to last night's no-no. A good friend (several years her junior, actually about the same age as Jon Lester) was diagnosed with lymphoma last Christmas. And while he's about the farthest thing from a professional athelete on God's green earth, there's an eerie solace to be found in Lester's achievement. Stiffens your spine a bit to see something like that. Good on him.

1. Troop levels to remain more or less steady in Iraq through December: This has more to do with the Iraqi elections in October than it does with the American election in November, and Abu Muqawama understands the reasoning. But honestly, if the elections don't happen or if all hell breaks loose and the elections don't allow the Sunni some way back into the political process, we have to admit the surge was a brilliant tactical victory but of less value strategically. Michelle Flournoy: “The only happy ending to the surge is for it to produce some strategic results, which it has yet to do.” And by that time, it's a new president's problem. Thanks, George!

2. Abu Muqawama still can't get over all that crap about Iran which leaked into AEI's plan for Iraq. There was a lot of stuff in the AEI report that was really good and suggested serious thought and analysis, but that stuff on Iran is what happens when you let a bunch of Iran hawks with their own agenda (we would never name names) into the planning process. The result is a report containing some very good recommendations tainted by the ideological crusades of some beltway warriors. (Also, the failure to mention the needs of and situation in Afghanistan as part of the recommendations was, again, especially galling.)

3. A reader we'll identify as John N. for the sake of anonymity sent along this op-ed by Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal on the debate among Sunni clerics about the requirements for jihad and the constraints they put upon al-Qaeda recruiting. It's an interesting read (albeit with a title that's a little too hopeful). Readers wanting to know more about how the requirements for jihad play out in the minds of wannabe jihadis -- you must ask your Mom and Dad for permission, you must pay off debts, etc. -- would do well to read Andrea Elliott's excellent report from Tetouan for the New York Times Magazine a few months back.

Update: Lady S. suggested that Abu Muqawama do some sort of comparison between al-Qaeda recruitment and recruitment for, say, the US Marine Corps. Abu Muqawama had actually thought about throwing in some snarky line into the original post about how the requirements for jihad were stricter than the requirements for joining the Marines or U.S. Army. After all, as any officer and NCO who supervises troops knows, you can enlist in the Marines or Army with plenty of debt and you don't need your parents' permission. (Unless you're under 18.) So by one measure, it's easier to go fight in Iraq as a Marine than it is as a suicide bomber.

Update II: Holy %$#@, it's baseball season already.

Kip has been trying to bait Abu Muqawama into writing more about Imad Mughniyeh, sending him posts where people claim Mughniyeh was behind everything from the 9/11 bombings to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Abu Muqawama refuses to rise to the bait. But in honor of spring training, he just wants to point out one thing: Imad Mughniyeh's son (pictured, click to enlarge) is a Yankees fan. (Thanks, TTW)

Why is Johan Santana going to the Mets? I mean really, what cosmic forces aligned to let this happen? Why isn't he joining Josh Beckett to form the greatest pitching line-up of the 21 st Century guaranteeing five-to-seven years of Red Sox domination? And how pissed is Charlie that we got outfoxed by the effing Mets? It's like being out-penny-pinched by the Air Force.

Gail Collins writes this morning in the New York Times that John McCain "absolutely dismembered [Mitt] Romney on the question of torture" during last night's GOP debate. He did. Watch it here:



On the lighter side of things, Mitt Romney articulated the position of this blog on a matter of slightly less moral importance:



Update: Former flatmate Theo points out, though, that Romney can't count.

Update II: afghanistanica, though, wants to know why the Red Sox get airtime and not the war we've been fighting since 2001.

The security improvements in most neighborhoods are real. Days now pass without a car bomb, after a high of 44 in the city in February. The number of bodies appearing on Baghdad’s streets has plummeted to about 5 a day, from as many as 35 eight months ago, and suicide bombings across Iraq fell to 16 in October, half the number of last summer and down sharply from a recent peak of 59 in March, the American military says.

As a result, for the first time in nearly two years, people are moving with freedom around much of this city. In more than 50 interviews across Baghdad, it became clear that while there were still no-go zones, more Iraqis now drive between Sunni and Shiite areas for work, shopping or school, a few even after dark. In the most stable neighborhoods of Baghdad, some secular women are also dressing as they wish. Wedding bands are playing in public again, and at a handful of once shuttered liquor stores customers now line up outside in a collective rebuke to religious vigilantes from the Shiite Mahdi Army.

Abu Muqawama isn't sure when "Open Liquor Stores, Number of" became a way to measure success in counterinsurgency, but in all seriousness this article from today's New York Times is important for two reasons:

One, President Bush's harshest critics have to admit the "surge" has seen some stunning military successes. There is a real danger that in their rush to criticize the president (or, in some cases, run for president themselves) Democrats are going to ignore some really important things that have been taking place in Iraq over the past year. To a large degree, the U.S. military has "cracked the code" on counterinsurgency, echoing the testimony I heard from an officer friend of mine in the British Army expressing disbelief at how quickly the U.S. military was learning, on the ground, in Iraq. The U.S. military doesn't have it all figured out, but at least now they know what they have to do to give the mission a chance of success. This has huge implications for U.S. policy going forward, even if the bulk of U.S. ground troops eventually leave Iraq. What happens, at the very least, if we transition the tactics and resources on the ground in Iraq to Afghanistan? What might the NATO coalition achieve there? And there is a political danger that if Democrats seem ideologically blinded to the successes in Iraq, the American public will think they're just as crazy as the neo-conservatives who got the U.S. into this mess in the first place. Liberals in America cannot allow themselves to become ideologically wed to the narrative of defeat.

Two, as the Washington Post pointed out on Sunday, military successes such as these mean nothing if political reconciliation doesn't keep pace with them. If Abu Muqawama were advising a presidential candidate on either side of the aisle, he would be telling them to spend 60% of their Iraq speech praising the way in which U.S. military units have performed over the past year and then the remaining 40% of the speech demanding why our Iraqi "allies" and the Bush Administration haven't made more of an effort to turn transitory military successes into concrete political gains.

Yesterday, Abu Muqawama compared President Bush to J.D. Drew, the undeniably talented right fielder for the Boston Red Sox who always looks as if he would rather be doing something other than the job he's getting paid to do. One of the readers commented that at least J.D. Drew hits a grand slam in the playoffs every once in a while. Time to step up to the plate, then, George.