Back when moderate Republicans were more numerous and had control of the party's discussion, they could be counted upon to develop some fairly sound national security guidance. Here's one of those moments:

First: No people on earth can be held, as a people, to be enemy, for all humanity shares the common hunger for peace and fellowship and justice.

Second: No nation's security and well-being can be lastingly achieved in isolation but only in effective cooperation with fellow-nations.

Third: Any nation's right to form of government and an economic system of its own choosing is inalienable.

Fourth: Any nation's attempt to dictate to other nations their form of government is indefensible.

And fifth: A nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations.

In the light of these principles the citizens of the United States defined the way they proposed to follow, through the aftermath of war, toward true peace.

Not many people would recognize President Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1953 "Chance for Peace" speech delivered after the death of Joseph Stalin. If you had to name five principles of grand strategy that the Republican neocons had resolutely determined they would not ever follow, in particular with regards to the Middle East, I don't think you could come up with a better list.

Eisenhower used the moment to call for the "reduction of the burden of armaments now weighing upon the world." He wanted arms control agreements, not just on atomic weapons but on conventional forces, understanding that more federal funds spent on defense meant less federal funds spent on fighting poverty and need. He would later follow up the sentiment of this speech with his more famous "Fairwell Address" in 1961, fifty years ago this week, where he warned about a "military-industrial complex" and a "scientific-technological elite" that could overly tip the balance of federal funds toward defense solutions and away from the "national welfare of the future." You just can't find Republicans like Ike anymore.

Hat tip to Cheryl at Phronesisaiscal.

SusanG quotes this Boston Globe article

Spc. Eisenhower Atuatasi, 26, of Westminster, Calif.: "There's no way we're leaving in two years no matter what any recommendation says."

Staff Sgt. Rony Theodore, 33, of Brooklyn, N.Y.: "All of us want to change what we're doing because we're not doing very much."

Sgt. Christopher Wiacik, 28, of Livonia, Michigan: "It's just a study group. It's not really going to affect the president. I don't see any major changes happening until presidential elections start. I think both sides will promise to get troops out and give timelines then, but not before. We're just sitting around not making any progress. It's annoying. You're not motivated to help anybody. I don't want to live my life like this."

Spc. Richard Johnson, 20, of Bridgeport, Conn.: "It's like holding a child's hand. How long can you hold onto his hand before he does something on his own? How much longer do we have to get shot at or blown up?"

First Lieutenant Gerard Dow, 32, of Chicago, Ill.: "In Iraq, we try to win the hearts and minds of population. They want Americans out of here. They blame us for all their problems. They look at us as the terrorists and then they turn around and help the terrorists who are trying to kill us.... U.S. soldiers are dying trying to help people who don't want their help."

All About the Rug

via Mike F

Peter Baker writes in The Washington Post: "For whatever reason, Bush seems fixated on his rug. Virtually all visitors to the Oval Office find him regaling them about how it was chosen and what it represents. Turns out, he always says, the first decision any president makes is what carpet he wants in his office. As a take-charge leader, he then explains, he of course made a command decision -- he delegated the decision to Laura Bush, who chose a yellow sunbeam design.

"Elizabeth Vargas, the ABC News anchor, was the latest to get the treatment. She went by last week to interview Bush before his trip to Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. Sure enough, she wasn't in the room but a minute or two before he started telling her about the carpet.

'He loves his rug,' said Nicolle Wallace, the White House communications director. 'I've heard him describe it countless times.'

"Sometimes Bush describes it as a metaphor for leadership. Sometimes he relates how Russian President Vladimir Putin admired the carpet. Sometimes he seems most taken by the lighting qualities."

Here, from the White House Web site, is Bush's virtual tour of the Oval Office -- and the rug: "It helps make this room an open and optimistic place," he tells viewers.

"Sometimes Bush describes it as a metaphor for leadership. Sometimes he relates how Russian President Vladimir Putin admired the carpet. Sometimes he seems most taken by the lighting qualities."

Here, from the White House Web site, is Bush's virtual tour of the Oval Office -- and the rug: "It helps make this room an open and optimistic place," he tells viewers. Nothing says power like the Oval Office. The paintings of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The bust of Dwight D. Eisenhower. The desk used by both Roosevelts.

And then there's the rug. Don't forget the rug. President Bush never does.

Watching America via ReBelleNation

Due to the cleanly erased or non-existent serial numbers, investigators believe that the late-model Beretta firearms, similar to those carried by U.S. forces, were intended for people with “substantial government backing.”

By Nunzia Vallini

May 28, 2005 Original Article (English)    

BRESCIA: The report forwarded by American intelligence officers is brief and to the point: "Hostiles" in Iraq are toting Berettas. Insurgents have a large number of Italian-made side arms, all recent-model weapons, and what is even more disturbing, with illegible or non-existent serial numbers.

These phantom weapons were apparently of recent manufacture, but investigators have been unable to attribute them to legal imports during the early 1980s. The file has been forwarded by American intelligence to the Brescia public prosecutor's office, via the Italian secret services, and magistrates are determined to find where the weapons came from. Investigators have worked in total silence since an inquiry was opened in autumn 2004.Watching America via ReBelleNation

Due to the cleanly erased or non-existent serial numbers, investigators believe that the late-model Beretta firearms, similar to those carried by U.S. forces, were intended for people with “substantial government backing.”

By Nunzia Vallini

May 28, 2005 Original Article (English)

BRESCIA: The report forwarded by American intelligence officers is brief and to the point: "Hostiles" in Iraq are toting Berettas. Insurgents have a large number of Italian-made side arms, all recent-model weapons, and what is even more disturbing, with illegible or non-existent serial numbers.

These phantom weapons were apparently of recent manufacture, but investigators have been unable to attribute them to legal imports during the early 1980s. The file has been forwarded by American intelligence to the Brescia public prosecutor's office, via the Italian secret services, and magistrates are determined to find where the weapons came from. Investigators have worked in total silence since an inquiry was opened in autumn 2004.

Yesterday, however, judicial police visited the Foreign Ministry with a warrant signed by Chief Public Prosecutor Giancarlo Tarquini for copies of documents. All the  Brescia-based magistrate would say is, “It is our duty within the context of a confidential investigation."  Read on...

I can accept Bush butchering Lincoln, but must He butcher Eisenhower?              corrente

At a distance, their headstones look alike. Yet every son or daughter, mom or dad who visits will always look first at one.
Yesterday, however, judicial police visited the Foreign Ministry with a warrant signed by Chief Public Prosecutor Giancarlo Tarquini for copies of documents. All the Brescia-based magistrate would say is, “It is our duty within the context of a confidential investigation." Read on...