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Sept. 5, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: What does 'doing the right thing' entail?

Caroline B. Glick: The master strategist

Sept. 4, 2008

Ron Kampeas: Biden, Palin take lead in clash on Mideast issues

Bruce Dancis: With humor as their weapon, the Three Stooges took on Hitler

Sept. 3, 2008

Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg: Productive school years don't just happen

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Quick lamb stew serves up flavors of India

Sept. 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Costly Advice

Caroline B. Glick: Calling Israel's bluff

JWisdom: Wandering in Wonder by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

August 29, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: 20/20 sightlessness

Caroline B. Glick: When history is not repeated

JWisdom: Blessed or Cursed: It's Really Up to You by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 28, 2008

Steve Lipman: A Comeback for the 'Jewish Jordan'

Jeffrey Weiss: Researcher reports 'intriguing' diabetes breakthrough

August 27, 2008

Rabbi Zecharya Greenwald: Removing the perfectionist's mask

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Nunn: Summer harvest linguine

JWisdom:: The Missing Link in Spiritual Life by Rabbi David Aaron

August 26, 2008

Yaffa Ganz: Grandma gets lessons in staying cool

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: The Dems' 'soft' jihadist

JWisdom:: Today: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Plague of indifference

August 25, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: A friend is bearing a silly grudge from a supposed wrong. What recourse do I have?

Daniel Pipes: Barack Obama through Muslim Eyes

JWisdom:: The knowledge you need to overcome your insecurities by Malka Schulman

August 22, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Life's essential ingredient

Caroline B. Glick: Dominos anyone?

JWisdom:: Actually, Do Sweat the Small Stuff! by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 21, 2008

Today in Biblical History by Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Popularization of Kabbalah: 20 Menachem-Av 1558 CE

Jonathan Rosenblum: Lessons from the Beyond

JWisdom: : The Olympian within is rooting for you -- yes, you! –- to go for the gold

August 20, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Misleading Platform Platitudes

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Chicken Salad with Asian Dressing

JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: America's Defense of the Jews --- Until WWII by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

August 19, 2008

Dennis Prager: If the Almighty doesn't exist

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Obama's Islamist problem has nothing to do with his upbringing

JWisdom: Think your life is messed up? by Rabbi David Aaron

August 18, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Business with Friends

Diana West: Roars About Russia, Bare Whispers About Islam

JWisdom: Relationship agony: The real cause by Malka Schulman

August 15, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: To love the Divine

Caroline B. Glick: Georgia, Israel, and the nature of man

JWisdom: The Truly Righteous Don't Demand Entitlements by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 14, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Confessions of broken spirit

Libby Lazewnik: The Numbers Game

JWisdom: Six Questions You'll Be Asked in Heaven? - Uh - Let's Just Take One for Now! by Gavriel Aryeh Sanders

August 13, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Georgia should be on their minds

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Go Greek: Pair flavorful lamb kebabs with a hearty salad

JWisdom: Human hybrids aren't science fiction by Rabbi David Aaron

August 12, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bless us

Daniel Pipes: The West's Islamist Infiltrators

JWisdom: From Sadness to Gladness: The Route from Tisha b'Av to Rosh Hashana by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

August 11, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: A Jewish view on fair pricing

Caroline B. Glick: Ignoring failure in Gaza

JWisdom: 'Communication' Is Not The Answer! by Malka Schulman

August 7, 2008

Rabbi David Gutterman: A Continuing Story With a Sustaining Goal

Rabbi Berel Wein: Mourning and morning

JWisdom: Yes, we are still in exile by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 6, 2008

David Ashenfelter: Government made military engineer's life a living hell because of his faith, Defense Department report documents

Jonathan Tobin: Speak the Truth; Defeat the Lies

JWisdom: Jewish Spirituality: Fusion or Confusion? by Rabbi David Aaron

August 5, 2008

Chris Leppek: Church/state wall beginning to crumble?

Paul Greenberg: Exit Olmert (no encore, please)

JWisdom: Serenity: Make the commitment by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin (Read by Gavriel Sanders)

August 4, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Am I taking advantage of another's psychological quirk?

Andrew Silow-Carroll: A black and a Jew walk into the White House…

JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: Edward R. Morrow visits the ‘living dead’ by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Nov. 16, 2007 / 6 Kislev 5768

Some of us can't afford victory

By Jonathan Gurwitz


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | You know the situation in Iraq has improved when the U.S. military starts to receive criticism for inflating security threats.


That's what happened last month when the Defense Department asked Congress for $1.4 billion in emergency spending to combat sniper attacks.


As USA Today reported, the Pentagon based its request on the assertion that sniper attacks have quadrupled over the past year and eventually might outpace improvised explosive devices as the top killer of U.S. personnel. USA Today questioned the data and, after a review, discovered the rate of sniper attacks has actually declined slightly in 2007. During the past four months, it has declined precipitously.


A Defense Department official conceded that the quadrupled claim was a mistake. The Pentagon modified the justification for the spending request. And since Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace, a Norwegian company that supplies the Army with countersniper technology systems, has a plant in Johnstown, Pa., the hometown of appropriator in chief Rep. John Murtha, it's a safe bet the request will survive.


This is a lesson, first, in the capriciousness of politics, where even a supposedly staunch, get-the-troops-out-now opponent of the Iraq war is all for Iraq war spending — as long as his district gets a buck. The USA Today story hit the stands the same day the Wall Street Journal reported that Murtha, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, has directed more taxpayers dollars from the 2008 military-spending bill to his congressional district than any member of Congress.


It's also a lesson, more importantly, about the changing terms of the debate surrounding the Iraq war. Back in March, the new congressional majority bandied about resolutions calling for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq by August 2008, March 2008 and even, as stipulated in the Iraq Redeployment Act of 2007, within 180 days, which means the United States would by now have abandoned the Iraqi people.


Remember the logic of those resolutions? The presence of American troops was the destabilizing source of Iraq's deplorable security situation. The insurgency was the understandable homegrown response to military occupation. The surge would, therefore, only make matters worse by increasing instability and stoking the insurgency.


You don't hear rational people propound these theories anymore, and not only because of the obvious inability of its advocates to explain why they applied to Iraq but not to Afghanistan. You don't hear them because the facts on the ground have proven them to be utterly wrong — a dramatic drop in civilian and coalition casualties, the dramatic rebellion of Sunni tribes in Anbar and Diyala provinces against al-Qaida extremists and their alliance with U.S. forces against foreign jihadists.


Which is perhaps the best explanation for why Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards won't make a pledge to get the United States out of Iraq by the end of 2013, let alone in 180 days. And it's why a reader can be surprised to discover under the headline "Pentagon misstates sniper data in $1.4B request" that sniper attacks in Iraq have fallen dramatically in the last four months.


Despite the turnaround, 2007 will be the deadliest year yet for U.S. forces in Iraq. War is a human, not a mechanical, endeavor. The bombing of the Askariya shrine in Samarra ignited sectarian conflict in 2006. A new strategy with new leadership and more boots is managing to tamp it down in 2007. Another act of terrorist ingenuity could fan new flames of violence.


A sensible administration would use the improved security situation to leverage political progress in Baghdad. After all, when conventional wisdom held that military force couldn't make Iraq any better, the threat of a drawdown was next to meaningless. Now that the situation has improved, more Iraqis have a vested interest in a continuing U.S. presence. Ironically, the biggest opposition to such a shrewd policy may come from some putative war opponents in Congress who can't afford to see the American mission wind down.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

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JWR contributor Jonathan Gurwitz, a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, is a co-founder and twice served as Director General of the Future Leaders of the Alliance program at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. In 1986 he was placed on the Foreign Service Register of the U.S. State Department.

Jonathan Gurwitz Archives


© 2007, Jonathan Gurwitz

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