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White House Waves White Flag Exit Operation Enduring Freedom bythelastcrusade.org Speaking as Western leaders gathered in Kabul for Thursday's swearing-in of President Hamid Karzai, US President Barack Obama said his forthcoming announcement about the war in Afghanistan will include his intent for a complete troop withdrawal in the immediate future. "I am confident that when I announce my decision the American people will have a lot of clarity about what we are doing, how we are going to succeed... and most importantly what's the endgame on this thing," he told CNN."Unless you impose that kind of discipline it could...

A curious thing happened this year at the Maryland Republican Party booth at the State Fair: A GOP presidential straw poll was won by Ron Paul, the idiosyncratic congressman from Texas who is a fierce critic of the Iraq war. Perhaps just as curious was the Maryland GOP's decision to trumpet the results in a news release last week with the headline: "Maryland GOP Presidential Straw Poll Is a Big Success; Grassroots Candidate Wins Surprise Upset." According to the release, Paul received 263 votes, and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (for whom Republican former governor Robert L. Ehrlich...

In the spirit of holding our political leaders accountable, this year-end review will tabulate the worst lies told by Bush and company, along with several stories that were underreported in the media. Much of what was generated got lost in the fog of war, but the long arm of history will retrieve these moments. As the president said in his news conference this week, if they’re still writing about No. 1—George Washington—there’s plenty of time before the historians can properly evaluate No. 43. Judging by the mess in Iraq, it could be 200 or 300 years—if ever—before Bush is vindicated....

The announcement that Philadelphia recorded its 363rd murder today brought calls from both city and state Republicans for an immediate police and citizen pullout from the embattled city. Former Senator Rick Santorum called on Mayor John Street, (Democrat-Philadelphia) to resign or face impeachment. Calling Street's policy toward criminals "...a failed liberal policy resulting in massive daily deaths on the city's streets" Santorum urged an immediate withdrawl of beleaguered police and citizens. Santorum stated that Street's lies and malfeasance have led to an ever increasing escalation of a civil war between criminals and law abiding citizens. Congressman John Murtha,(Democrat-Pennsylvania) downplayed the...

Bloggers across the nation -- and across the world, if you are a U.S. citizen -- are united in support of Diana Irey's campaign to redeploy Jack Murtha. With just a few weeks left, Diana is poised to pull off the biggest upset since David beat Goliath -- even the District's hometown newspapers are now referring to this campaign as "Diana vs. Goliath." Let's continue our fight to load Diana's slingshot for the crucial advertising that will make the difference between victory and defeat in this critical contest. One Million Dollars is the goal! Won't you help Diana defeat this...

There's a difference between a party with principles not doing a good job executing those principles and a party with no principles. Anyone who thinks that turning the reins of power over to Democrats will raise the country's moral bar should take a cold shower. We can parse out every element of former Republican Congressman Mark Foley's behavior that sickens normal, decent Americans and find that these elements are today, in one form or another, a generally accepted part of everyday life in the country. We can thank liberals for this state of affairs, and these liberals are Democrats. What...

WHEN the first democratically, constitutionally elected prime minister of Iraq spoke before the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, a group of Democrats protested by sitting the speech out. Among the no-shows was California's own Sen. Barbara Boxer. Her loss. Boxer, the Senate's leading proponent of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, could have gained much from Nouri Kamal al-Maliki's impassioned plea on behalf of the people who risked their lives to elect him. It would have done her well to hear his exhortations that America not abandon Iraqis in their fight against Islamist terror, or undermine their brave effort to establish a...

Two organizations representing more than 60,000 United Nations staff members urged Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday to pull all U.N. staff out of Iraq because of the "unprecedented" risk to their safety and security. In a joint letter to Annan, the staff organizations cited a dramatic escalation in attacks in Iraq and said the United Nations regrettably "has become a direct target, one that is particularly prone to attacks by ruthless extremist terrorist factions." "Just one staff member is one staff member too many in Iraq," they said. "We ... appeal to your good judgment to ensure that no further...

John Kerry's Newt Gingrich Problem? After Newt Gingrich hit the national spotlight in 1994 by becoming the first Republican speaker of the House in 40 years, he was skewered by reports that he had served his first wife divorce papers as she lay in a hospital bed battling cancer. But the press has been far kinder to Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry, who, according to published accounts going back more than a decade, began extricating himself from his first marriage to Philadelphia heiress Julia Thorne at the same time she was battling a case of depression so debilitating that it...

CHICAGO - Faced with escalating turmoil in Iraq, George W. Bush spurns any talk of pulling out. "America will never run," he vows. Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, disagrees: "This disastrous mission must be ended before any more lives are lost. It is time to bring our troops home."