December 27, 2006
ON TO DAMASCUS:
Bush Could Usher in a Very Dangerous New Year (Robert Parry, December 27, 2006, Consortium News)
The first two or three months of 2007 represent a dangerous opening for an escalation of war in the Middle East, as George W. Bush will be tempted to "double-down" his gamble in Iraq by joining with Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair to strike at Syria and Iran, intelligence sources say.President Bush's goal would be to transcend the bloody quagmire bogging down U.S. forces in Iraq by achieving "regime change" in Syria and by destroying nuclear facilities in Iran, two blows intended to weaken Islamic militants in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
When has he ever not thrown the long ball? Posted by Orrin Judd at December 27, 2006 7:37 AM
I've been waiting -- with bated breath -- for him to throw the next long ball since the 2004 election.
Still waiting, but I can't hold my breath that long.
Posted by: Anthony Perez-Miller at December 27, 2006 11:24 AMRule of thumb: the opinion of any journalist who doesn't use sneer quotes around "quagmire" can be safely ignored. "double-down" seems to be next on the list.
(Any good blackjack player would know that you double down only when the odds are in your favor, not because you "feel lucky." It's cliched use iis just another example of the herd of semi-literate J-School graduates trying for greater gravitas in their writing by all imitating each others bad habits.)
The Indian nuke deal, SS Reform, Retirement reform, bankruptcy reform, Roberts, Miers, they're all long balls...
Posted by: oj at December 27, 2006 10:23 PM