We’ve often observed that the Washington Post likes to say that a Republican who acts like a Democrat is “maturing in office.”

The good news: that rhetorical shoe fits on the other foot as well.  The Washington Post increasingly is becoming neocon-ish-eque-like in the way it sees Iraq and terrorism.

Witness today’s editorial on the Democratic presidential candidates and the war on terrorism:

The common blind spot among the Democrats is Iraq. Eager to please a constituency that despises the war, the candidates commonly promise to “end” it, ignoring the reality that Iraq is still an active battlefield for al-Qaeda. Mr. Obama rails against the failure to destroy al-Qaeda’s camps in eastern Pakistan, where no American troops operate, yet proposes to control al-Qaeda in Iraq with a “minimal over-the-horizon military force” — a plan that would duplicate the Pakistan problem. Ms. Clinton says that “we cannot succeed” against al-Qaeda “unless we design a strategy that treats the entire region as an interconnected whole, where crises overlap with one another and the danger of a chain reaction of disasters is real.” Yet she would effectively exclude Iraq from that strategy.

Glad to see the Post exposing that blind spot.  Call it maturing in office.  Or call it a new brand of neoconservatism: a Post-Con.

A rare night out for Extreme Mortman yesterday to attend the Washington screening of “Charlie Wilson’s War.”  Thanks to the wonderful charity ThanksUSA — a non-partisan, charitable effort to mobilize Americans of all ages to “thank” the men and women of the United States armed forces by providing college, technical and vocational school scholarships for their children and spouses — we were able to see a movie we’ve long-anticipated.  It was a generous event: fancy dinner at the fancy Motion Picture Association of America with fancy philanthropic people.

And how was the movie?

If you’re nostalgic for early ’80s DC and politics, this film is for you.  It’s rare we get on-screen mentions of both Jack Murtha and Rudy Giuliani  (Murtha makes out well, Giuliani becomes a punchline.  And Doc Long, portrayed by Ned Beatty.  Maryland political junkies will recognize Doc Long as Democrat Clarence “Doc” Long, who held Maryland’s 2nd Congressional district for years (and was a strong anti-communist with bucks to back it up) before turning the seat over to Republican Helen Bentley back in the mid-’80s.

And of course Charlie Wilson (played by Tom Hanks), the kind of free-spirited congressman who today we’d label libertarian merely because we don’t quite know how to categorize an America-loving Democrat who hates Communists and loves whiskey and allegedly the harder recreation stuff too and embraces free love and proudly staffs a Congressional office with fabulous Playboy-quality babes named “Jailbait.”  He’s destined for the ethics committee — and for boosting funding on the covert war against the Soviets in Afghanistan from $5 million to $1 billion.

“Let’s kill some Russians” is the movie’s rallying cry — a bit more straightforward than “Give me liberty or give me death.”  More similar to the “Red Dawn” heroic cry “Wolverines!”

The movie provides just a glancing mention of Massoud, the greatest of the Afghan freedom fighters.  Massoud does not merit an on-screen portrayal.  It’s a short movie — beefing up Massoud’s portrayal would have been well worth the extra time.  And it would have given an uplifting story and face to contrast with all the faceless poor souls at the refugee camps at the Afghan/Pakistan border — many horribly disfigured from Soviet mines.
Sorkin’s overly whimsical writing is on steroids in this one.  Sorkin’s style has transitioned from trademark and distinctive to annoying and farcical.  And his heavy touch with music absolves the audience of any requirement to think for themselves.

Despite that, it’s a wonderful rush to get caught up again in classic anti-Communist fervor.  We won that one.  It’s a great feeling hopefully we’ll never soon forget — and an unmistakable contrast with today’s war.

Sorkin brings us to the end of Wilson’s tale with thick messaging on how America’s involvement in pushing out the Communists from Afghanistan ends up bringing in the Taliban, in essence sparking and fueling the terrorists who would later do us harm.  We should have replaced weapons funding with schools funding, the movie lectures us.
It makes you angry seeing Sorkin end the movie that way.  And it makes you even angrier knowing he’s right.

Instapundit alerts us to this news in the Examiner:

Former D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey is shifting his position on Washington’s 31-year ban on handgun ownership as the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments on the issue.

Ramsey says there needs to be reasonable control over guns, but he says handgun registration can provide that control.

The former chief, who is set to take over Philadelphia’s police department in January, says the nation is not going to ban handguns and he’s taking a realistic approach to the issue.

Not surprising.  Ramsey may turn out to be D.C.’s most realistic public official since Boss Shepherd.

Over the summer, Ramsey led a delegation of law enforcement officers to Iraq to evaluate policing.

And this comment recently appeared on a Philadelphia news blog:

I can’t help commenting on my experience of being arrested during a peaceful and permitted protest against the Iraq war under Ramsey’s orders in 2002. A docile crowd was gathering in Pershing Park DC to protest the war when police encircled the park and arrested over 400 of us including protesters, joggers and local workers on their lunch breaks. We spent a couple days warehoused in a police academy gym all with our wrists zip tied to ankles, before most of us who agreed to sign guilty pleas were released. This was nothing short of a mass political roundup intended to harrass us and gather our information.

To which we say: Way cool.

Meantime, the conservative blog Red Maryland noted recently:

Chief Ramsey turned around a thoroughly corrupt, demoralized, and ineffective police force in the District.

Sure he’s not perfect.  No one from D.C. possibly can be.  But Chief Ramsey certainly deserves the royal treatment of some sort.

Rough few days for CNN, what with them putting on presidential debates and all.

But in all the gloom, is there something CNN-related to brighten our day?

Of course!  Taste this scrumptious bon-bon from TV Newser:

Campbell Brown’s first documentary for CNN, “Campaign Killers: Why Do Negative Ads Work?” premiered Wednesday night after the GOP debate, and is already drawing criticism. Media Matters picked up on Brown’s categorization of the group MoveOn.org as “American insurgents” in her description of their ad against Gen. David Petraeus.

Brown said, “General David Petraeus made his reputation taking on insurgents in Iraq. But when he came to Capitol Hill in September, he was confronted by American insurgents: a liberal anti-war group called MoveOn.org.”

Sure glad the CNN fact checkers were asleep at the wheel on that one, too.

Joe Biden did something rare for a Democratic presidential candidate — he praised the Bush Administration for a Middle East piece initiative.

Well, sorta:

The latest U.S. peace effort is winning bipartisan endorsement. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) issued a statement yesterday saying that he “strongly” supports the Annapolis meeting but cautioned about the dangers of failure. “It presents a real opportunity for progress — but if it’s a one shot deal, it won’t work. The Middle East peace process needs the sort of sustained day-in-day-out engagement at the highest levels that this Administration has thus far, shown little interest in or aptitude for,” Biden’s statement said. “This conference will only be meaningful if it is the start of a continued effort, not the end of one.”

We’ll take what we can get.  Will Biden be a positive trend-setter with his colleagues running for president?

Democrats seem bound and gagged from something anything remotely critical of Iran and its terrorism tentacles.  Annapolis might be the only grounds for agreement.

Ha’aretz publishes the list of attendees to the Annapolis Mid East “peace” summit.

And it’s a long one.  Norway?
You know, Annapolis has a population of only 35,000.  This summit doubles that.

Organizers might want to see if Kent Island is available for overflow and breakout “peace” workshops.

That’s the title of an excellent book I’m reading now, written by Dr. Thomas Henricksen, Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and the U.S. Special Operations University.

American Power after the Berlin Wall tells us what is going to happen in the near future in foreign policy based on our recent past.

It describes the last two decades of U.S. foreign policy after the Berlin Wall collapsed, covering what went right and what went wrong in our military and humanitarian interventions into Panama, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq twice.

No other single book, and in only 250 pages, covers these wars, conflicts, and occupations, while discussing critically things like nation-building, democracy-spreading, and stabilizing a turbulent world.

At the conclusion, Henriksen notes that war on terror will have to be fought without resorting to more occupations because they are too expensive and too unpopular at home.  We will have to turn to helping others to wage their own fights against radical Islam and by using our military power selectively.  Clever countermeasures are needed in this long conflict with militant Islam.

It’s a fascinating read and an important addition to our understanding and appreciation of foreign policy — all done in easy-to-embrace narrative.

(And if you’re into good deals for your foreign policy books, Barnes & Noble has the best price.  Click here to see.)

The CIA is offering this “terrorist buster” pin …

Color me hopelessly nostalgic, but I prefer the throwback version of terror fighting …

Lovers of 2nd Amendment rights for the citizenry to bear arms should rejoice at the news that superheroes are covered, too.

Presenting the new and vastly improved Captain America:

WIth this great quote by the comic book’s writer Ed Brubaker: “A guy who fought in World War II isn’t going to care if terrorists die.”

No doubt Captain America will be at the front lines if we need him in Iran.

Hillary Clinton was on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” and this occurred:

The junior Senator from New York pointed to continued nuclear development by Iran and North Korea - and reported cooperation between Syria and North Korea - as evidence of U.S. enemies growing stronger.

If Clinton wants to take her tough talk a step further, here’s an idea.  Democrats seem to be willing to pursue and eliminate terrorists and evil doers as long as they’re not in Iraq.  It’s an outgrowth of their propensity to support wars we’re not actually fighting.

So with the news of …

…. a reported Israeli air strike on Sept. 6 which some U.S. officials have linked to apparent Israeli suspicions of secret nuclear cooperation between Damascus and North Korea …

… we might want to ask Clinton and the other Democratic presidential candidates the following: Do you condone and/or embrace Israel’s specific actions — and would you likewise do so as president for any other similar use of force?  The daring Israeli raid is a clean incident — meaning, Iraq’s not part of the equation.  Let’s have a clean statement of Democratic policy.