In case you didn’t know it (it hasn’t been particularly well-publicized) there’s a debate tonight in South Carolina amongst some of the GOP candidates who have declared either officially or unofficially that they are running for the GOP nomination for President. Here’s a list of those participating in the debate:
This story about dogs who serve alongside members of the US military on training and combat missions is the feel-good story of the day. It’ll make you forget for a few minutes the sheer incompetence of this administration’s handling of the post-OBL kill information dissemination, as my co-blogger Anthony discussed earlier. I had no idea the extent of the canine involvement with the US armed forces until I read the article (which noted a dog was brought along for the OBL “Geronimo” mission) and viewed the pictures (via The Atlantic senior editor Alexis Madrigal). Here’s one such picture:
In light of all the back and forth that has taken place in the aftermath of the bin Laden termination, specifically the renewed debate on the effectiveness of aggressive interrogations, Bush-era administration official and counterterrorism expert Marc Thiessen explains in a great column in the Washington Post what the enhanced interrogation techniques used by US intelligence agencies were actually designed to do (bolded emphasis added by me):
The code words “Geronimo – EKIA” were music to the ears of President Obama and members of his national security team who sat in the Situation Room with him on May 1 as Navy SEAL Team Six confirmed the termination of Public Enemy Number One Osama bin Laden. While most Americans are still celebrating what happened Sunday, some haven’t felt like they could fully bask in the news of OBL’s demise because the use of the name “Geronimo” to describe the operation offended them. ABC’s The Note reports on just how much this “issue” has escalated over the last couple of days as a result of the outcries from some in the Native American community:
Obama’s favorite word rears its ugly head once again:
