The Best of Uncommon Commentary: Failed State-smanship, Too

Domestic and foreign critics have been pressing for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to resign, and the country's vice-president has asked the parliament to convene tomorrow to begin the process of forming a new government (within the same parliamentary system).  I don't disagree that the current PM is a failed leader, but what Western diplomacy still doesn't seem to comprehend—Eleven days ago, President Obombast called for "inclusive" government in Iraq, as if the Sunni Islamists, who appear to be well on their way to a takeover of the whole country, would be satisfied with a larger share of power in a ruling coalition!—is that Iraq is a failed state.  In UC #3, I referred to Iraq's government as "terminally ill"; to see what the rest of the world ought to have done instead of imposing such a regime upon the Arabs and Kurds in that land, revisit the penultimate paragraph of said posting. (Then, read the rest of it!)

Uncommon Commentary #410: Regarding Value to Our Country, Their Net Worth Is Zero

Hillary [sic] lately said that she's not "truly well-off", even though the Clintons' net worth is an estimated $100 million.  Perhaps she meant that she's not well-off being married to Slick!

Uncommon Commentary #409: Is This a Josh, or Is it in Earnest?

Since the synonym section of my dictionary's entry for "serious" reads "earnest suggests sincerity … of purpose", it's hard to think of a less appropriate name for a professional liar (viz., Obama White House Press Secretary) than that of Jay Blarney's replacement, Josh Earnest (or Ernest; I've seen it spelled both ways).

Uncommon Commentary #408: Bergdahl Was AWOL, Which Makes the Trade AWFUL (Alternate Title: Bergdahl Got His Just Desserts for Deserting in the Desert)

Regarding the Obama administration's swap of five terrorists, whom a Pentagon official likened to "four-star generals" of the Taliban, for Sergeant Bergdahl: How long do you think someone would last as the general manager of a professional "football" team if he traded a quintet of all-stars for a fourth-stringer who left the field without permission while a play was being run?  Certainly not for eight seasons!

Uncommon Commentary #407: Khattala Suffers a Seizure

On Trinity Sunday, US forces captured Ahmed Abu Khattala, a senior leader of the terror group Ansar al-Sharia and one of the suspects in the 2012 attack upon our diplomatic outpost in Benghazi.  Two days later, reporters asked a Pentagon official why we were previously unable to seize a man who lived openly in Libya, even granting interviews to foreign media such as the BBC and Fox News; the spokesman's non-answer, "What matters is that … we got him", leads one to suspect that the administration could have nabbed this person whenever it chose to do so.  The reason why it did so now can only be a subject of speculation at this time, but the most likely explanation is that it sought to distract people's attention from news about the consequences of the Nerobama regime's ineptitude and malfeasance, perhaps specifically the belated formation of a special congressional committee to investigate the cover-up concerning the very debacle that made it necessary to try to bring the likes of Khattala to justice.

The Best of Uncommon Commentary

This short u.c. is among those that you may have missed; see "An Important Note on the Archive" on the right side of the Doman Domain.  Since it's updated anyway, why not take this opportunity to view it?

Uncommon Commentary #406: "Like-Minded", not "Life-Minded"

Who ought to be against abortion: Anyone who's been born!  Don't "pro-choice" children of like-minded mothers realize that these mothers would have destroyed them had the pregnancies that produced them been undesirable?

Best of Miscellaneous Musing

Since today marks the seventieth anniversary of the Normandy invasion, known officially as Operation Overlord and popularly but foolishly as "D-Day" (v.i.), you'll want to revisit MM #7.
(The date on which this invasion began was called "D-Day" for the same reason why the time of its launching was called "H-Hour" and the entire operation was dubbed "Operation Overlord": The planners didn't want the enemy to know what would happen.  "Overlord" was the code name given to this particular operation; "D-Day" was the code name used for the date of commencement of any military campaign, just as "H-Hour" was that designating the hour of its commencement.  For some reason, the public has come to associate "D-Day" specifically with Overlord.)