He apparently thinks diplomacy with Iran is the best option, and as the following suggests, he’s right in line with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
From Wash Post:
Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, President Bush’s nominee to lead U.S. forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, supports continued U.S. engagement with international and regional partners to find [...]

That’s the report from the Jerusalem media, but the administration is saying it’s false.
Who’s telling the truth?
The White House on Tuesday flatly denied an Army Radio report that claimed US President George W. Bush intends to attack Iran before the end of his term. It said that while the military option had not been taken [...]

TPM has the comparison…

It’s definitely encouraging to think we’re going to have a genuine policy debate this fall about how we conduct our foreign policy.
So then…is Obama naive to think he can talk with our enemies or is McCain naive to think we shouldn’t given that our current foreign policy stance has resulted in more [...]

Obama or McCain?
The Meet The Press roundtable tackles the subject, and while nobody breaks from their partisan affiliations, it’s a good talk.

Do note that Huckabee said Iran is indeed more dangerous, but he just doesn’t think it’s really Bush’s fault. Well, whose fault is it when we’re discussing American foreign policy? The Democrats?
In the end, [...]

And something tells me that this will be one of those gifts that’ll keep on giving…

Chuck Todd explains why the Obama camp is cheering today…
When President Bush — thousands of miles away in Israel — decided to fire his thinly veiled shot at Obama yesterday, it was a giant gift to the Illinois senator and his campaign.
Why?
One, it essentially kept Clinton on the sidelines just two days after [...]

Here’s the transcript from MSNBC via ThinkProgress:
“President Bush got it exactly right today when he warned about the threat of Iran and its terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah. It is imperative that we reject the flawed and naïve thinking that denies or dismisses the words of extremists and terrorists when they shout “Death to [...]

There have always been whispers that George Sr. really thinks his son’s Iraq policy is wrong. That’s never been confirmed by him personally, but former aides are on the record as saying so.
And now Obama is giving his strategy the thumbs up as a juxtaposition to the his son’s.
I wonder how he’d feel about the [...]

After a foreign policy that has resulted in more enemies instead of fewer, Bush actually has the gall to suggest that talking with some of the more high level foes is akin to appeasing Hitler.
Seriously?
“Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have [...]

That’s what the Pentagon is pondering, and although it’s nothing more than a gesture, making PTSD and other invisible battlefield scars worthy of this historic recognition would be something I’d welcome wholeheartedly.
From Wash Post:
WASHINGTON — Centuries before Iraq and Afghanistan, George Washington created the Purple Heart to honor troops wounded in combat.
But with an increasing [...]

Feith is famous for being the guy who formed the “Office of Special Plans”, a group that cherry-picked the intelligence for the administration so they could justify going into Iraq because of WMDs and ties to al Qaeda. And now he’s out on the talk show circuit hawking his book which claims that their was [...]

Obama said this today in West Virginia…
One of the saddest episodes in our history was the degree to which returning vets from Vietnam were shunned, demonized and neglected by some because they served in an unpopular war. Too many of those who opposed the war in Vietnam chose to blame not only the leaders who [...]

The title says it all.
USA Today has the details:
More than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway, Pentagon records show.
This reliance on troops found medically “non-deployable” is another sign of stress placed on a military that has [...]

Some sobering news about how many of our young men and women are dying from wounds they suffered on the battlefield that nobody could see until it’s too late.
From Bloomberg:
The number of suicides among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the combat death toll because of inadequate mental health care, the U.S. [...]

“My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.”
- John McCain in a town hall meeting earlier today
He [...]

From the AP:
The killings of three U.S. soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad pushed the American death toll for April up to 47, making it the deadliest month since September.
One soldier died when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb. The other died of wounds sustained when he was attacked by small-arms fire, the [...]

Looks the the Iraqi Army has taken the city back from the militia, and that’s got Muqtada al-Sadr really angry. The only problem for Sadr? Iran seems to be backing Iraq’s moves, and Sadr has always been under the thumb of Iran.
From NY Times:
Mr. Sadr’s stock has recently fallen in Iranian eyes, the Iranian [...]

I saw this in the comments from my post today, Nearly 1 In 5 Soldiers Have PTSD:
I’m the Vet who contacted Carissa Piccard and Liz Dozier at CBS. Jonathan & I talked for over an hour today. He agrees that both Carissa & Liz totally rock. So do I - in spades. Jonathan is still [...]

From AP:
A recently completed survey showed 18.5% — or 300,000 people — said they have symptoms of depression or PTSD, the researchers said. Nineteen% — or 320,000 — suffered head injuries ranging from mild concussions to penetrating head wounds. [...]
The 500-page study is the first large-scale, private assessment of its kind — including a survey [...]

Between this news and the recent uptick in troop deaths, April is looking to be the bloodiest this year.
From NY Times:
BAGHDAD — As many as 53 people, including 12 children, died in a bombing Tuesday in Baquba, a city the Americans believed they had largely taken back from Sunni insurgents last summer.
A second bomb later [...]