Neo-conservative founding father Irving Kristol once famously said, a neoconservative is "a liberal who's been mugged by reality." Now the once-preening adherents of the Bush Doctrine are being beaten and battered by events on the ground. First came the Sharia-influenced constitution and sectarian violence in Iraq and the Hamas government in Palestine. With the possible […]

On this the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, I'm adding to the endless list of retrospectives. The Perrspectives Iraq Archive includes all of this site's articles, features and pieces on the planning, politics and policies surrounding the American conflict in Iraq. Among the featured pieces:

The latest wave of public opinion polls shows that President Bush's downward spiral continues unabated. The Wall Street Journal reports that Bush's approval rating has plummeted to 37%, with CNN coming in at 36%, a precipitous 10% drop from January. And while a comparatively upbeat Washington Post survey from March 6th put the President at […]

Faced with negative polls and a pessimistic American nation, President Bush's just completed 2006 State of the Union Address naturally focused on the theme of "the Hopeful Society." But like the stillborn "Ownership Society" vision before it, Bush's 2006 SOTU will be remembered not for its policy program, but for its partisan political purposes. The […]

Karl Rove is widely credited with being "Bush's brain." But when it comes to the administration's dangerous and unprecedented expansion of presidential war powers, John Yoo is the President's mouthpiece. Only 34, Yoo, formerly of the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel and now a professor at the University of California Boalt Hall School of Law, […]

It's been a very busy week for the Avenging Angel, punisher of conservative miscreants. Last week, Bob Woodward, the famed Watergate reporter, confirmed that he sold his soul to the devil. First, Woodward penned two Bush hagiographies in exchange for exclusive access to the White House. Now it it turns out that Woodward, who on […]

In case you were wondering, this is why Harry Reid forced the Senate into a closed session. Republican Chairman Pat Roberts on the Phase 2 Report on possible Bush White House manipulation of Iraq WMD intelligence: "I don't think there should be any doubt that we have now heard it all regarding prewar intelligence. I […]

Special Prosecutore Patrick Fitzgerald has announced that Cheney chief of staff Scooter Libby has been indicted on five charges on obstruction of justice, perjury, and making false statements. (Here are PDF's of the Libby indictment text and the Fitzgerald press release text.) The false statements occurred during interviews with federal agents in 2003. The perjury […]

Washington is on pins and needles as all await word from CIA leak special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. Reuters reports that Fitzgerald may convene the grand jury as early as Tuesday to seek indictments. What began as an investigation into the outing of a covert CIA operative has grown to encompass perjury and obstruction of justice, […]

The recruiting woes of the American military continue unabated. The AP reported today that the U.S. Army just completed its worst recruiting year since 1979. The shortfall for the all-volunteer force was among the most dramatic, both in absolute numbers (7,000) and as a percentage of the target (80,000), since the United States ended conscription […]