Pay no attention to the New York Times‘ editorial on the President’s speech concerning the new strategy in Iraq. Apparently, the Times is ready to throw in the towel and to declare this war as already lost. For them, it’s time for the U.S. to cut its losses and any chance at a viable unity-government in Iraq. For a more realistic analysis of the President’s new strategy, two Wall Street Journal editorials are worth your careful consideration: “Mission Baghdad: ‘Clear, hold and build’ will take at least this many troops” “A Cynical Opposition: Democrats criticize Bush without taking any responsibility”

No, President Bush isn’t really in my backyard, but it looks like his Presidential Library will be. According to the New York Times, Dallas’ Southern Methodist University will likely be the site for the president’s future library and museum. Unfortunately, some of SMU’s faculty are resisting the prospect of a Bush library on their campus. Two anti-war professors from SMU’s Perkins School of Theology have co-written an opinion editorial in the campus newspaper opposing the library. After weighing the benefits of having the library on their campus, they ask this question:

The Times of London reports that, Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons. Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources. The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb. . .

Roberty Drury’s and Tom Clavin’s column in today’s New York Times tells of Gerald Ford’s heroism in World War II. It concludes, “Like his fellow World War II veterans, Mr. Ford returned home and resumed his life, rarely speaking publicly of his heroism. But in contrast to the public’s image of him as a clumsy nonentity, Mr. Ford was a man whose grace under pressure saved his ship and hundreds of men on it.” Go read the story: “How Lieutenant Ford Saved His Ship.”

I guess Bob Woodward always gets the scoop. He certainly does in today’s Washington Post. The headline of Woodward’s story reads “Ford Disagreed With Bush About Invading Iraq.” Woodward conducted the interview with President Ford in 2004 but only had permission to publish it after Ford’s death. It’s fascinating to see how different Ford is from Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, both of whom served in the Ford administration. It’s an interesting piece and worth the read.

A friend of mine recently said to me that he thought Senator Barack Obama was an empty suit. Peggy Noonan agrees with this assessment in her column “‘The Man From Nowhere’: What does Barack Obama believe in?” Noonan’s critique of Obama as a politician is withering: