Iraq

Honesty Is The Best Policy

Thursday, March 23rd, 2023

While honesty is the best policy, it doesn’t always make the best politics.  Twenty years ago, President George W. Bush lied about Iraq.  The invasion made conservatives happy but was a disaster for America, Iraq and the entire Middle East. George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice told America and the […]

Did You Get the Memo?

Thursday, August 18th, 2022

Every August I remember our history.  For professional historians, history is based on documents.  Documents give us a look into real time events rather than looking backwards.  Documents help us separate reality from storytelling. On August 6, 2001 a Central Intelligence Agent handed George W. Bush a Presidential Daily Brief.  Its title could not have […]

Honoring My Dad and the Fallen

Monday, May 27th, 2019

Memorial Day always makes me think of my dad-Yves “Buster” Melancon.  He served for twenty-seven years in the United States Army and went to Vietnam twice.  As a Combat Engineer, Dad wasn’t directly engaged in the fighting, but he did travel throughout the war zone.  I always wonder how my life would have been different […]

“How do we move forward? in Syria”

Monday, November 16th, 2015

“Strangely today you are touting that Obama has been wanting to go to war when mostly he has said that he is going to get us out of it. How about we move on and not just continue the political spin? “   Actually, what I have said is President Obama has continued to wage […]

Face Reality. It is the American Way.

Thursday, November 13th, 2014

Retired Lt. General Daniel P. Bolger does a commendable job launching a preemptive strike against the push for more “boots on the ground.” He makes the case that “The surge in Iraq did not ‘win’ anything.” He explains the allure of myth making around the failed surge. “As veterans, we tell ourselves it was all […]