JEFF JACOBY: Winning the war in Iraq and losing the peace?

To this day, the United States maintains a substantial military presence in Italy (approximately 11,000 active-duty personnel), South Korea (28,500), Japan (40,000), and Germany (54,000). When US forces settle in for the long haul after fighting and winning bloody wars, the results have generally been decades of peace and progress. But when the United States bugs out -- as it did in Vietnam after 1972, or in Germany at the end of World War I -- the results have been disastrous, both for the nations we walked away from and for American influence worldwide.

I'd like to believe I'm wrong, but I think Obama has just kicked the can down the road for another President to deal with.

THE LONGSHORE WORKERS UNION will honor Occupy Oakland’s general strike. Of course -- a day off with pay.

More here.

BEWARE THE DINOSAURS.

LEFT VERSUS RIGHT:

I have often wondered why it is that Conservatives are called the "right" and Liberals are called the "left."

By chance I stumbled upon this verse in the Bible: "The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left." Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)

Can't get any simpler than that.

From my email.

I AM THE 96%: Now even Planck's Constant is joining the OWS protest.

SEEN ON THE WEB: a truly frightening Halloween costume.

OCCUPY WALL STREET: Why are you protesting?

I REALLY, REALLY want them to leave.

NIGHT BALLET.

MARK STEYN on adult babies, diapers, and 'blue ice'.

INEPTOCRACY (in-ep-toc’-ra-cy): a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

From my email.