Roguely Stated

In an unsigned, 1,721 word editorial today the New York Times states bluntly: “It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit.”

Whatever Bush’s cause was in Iraq, the Times says, “it is lost.”

FLASHBACK: Frontline analysis of the media’s reporting on WMDs in the run-up to the Iraq War.

UPDATE/BREAKING: David Sanger reports in Monday’s New York Times that White House officials “want to forestall G.O.P. defections by announcing an intention to withdraw American troops.”

Ms. Tart, a great friend of RoguelyStated, tagged us with a Thinking Blogger Award. We’re flattered, and in turn it’s our duty to tag five other sites. These are plucked from the RS Blogroll, so here are some thoughts on why they’re there:

Counterterrorism Blog is a group of serious people writing - usually in realtime - about ongoing events with broad international security implications. Timely and incisive analysis is never in short supply at CT Blog.

Small Wars Journal is one-stop-shopping for those looking to understand the evolution of warfare and its implications for security policy. RS’ own Fernando Lujan, himself a small wars operator, has contributed to SWJ’s robust dialogue.

Prolific, fiery, engaging, and thought-provoking: Thomas P.M. Barnett is a must-read and (maybe even moreso) a must-watch.

Bored or confused by legal wranglings and court rulings? You don’t have to be - the crew at National Security Advisors can help you sort it out. The courts are the battlefield on which the fate of national security policies is often decided. Best that we keep abreast of what the rulings mean and the National Security Advisors team blogs it so the JD-less among us can understand.

Last but certainly not least is ForeignPolicy.com’s Passport. Their morning brief is amazing, and they meet their stated objective of providing “iconoclastic thinking designed to catch you off guard—and make you think.” Yup.

Others? Post them in the comments.

The Declaration of Independence
July 4, 2025

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. Continue Reading »

Then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy signed off on illegal wiretaps of American journalists, according to the recently declassified CIA “Family Jewels.”

From the declassified CIA documents:

Project Mockingbird, a telephone intercept activity…targeted two Washington-based newsmen who, at the time, had been publishing news articles based on, and frequently quoting, classified [CIA] materials…

Telephone intercept connections were installed at the newsmen’s office and at each of their homes…The connections were established with the assistance of a telephone company official…authority for the activity was Mr. John McCone, Director of Central Intelligence…in coordination with the Attorney General (Mr. Robert Kennedy) [and] the Secretary of Defense (Mr. Robert McNamara)…

From the New York Times Blog:

According to the transcripts of the tapes that President John F. Kennedy secretly recorded in the Oval Office, shortly after 6 p.m. on August 22,1962, JFK and Director of Central Intelligence John McCone discussed a plan for the CIA to wiretap members of the Washington press corps.

“How are we doing with that set-up on the Baldwin business?” the president asked. Four weeks before, Hanson Baldwin, the national security reporter for The New York Times, had published an article on Soviet efforts to protect intercontinental ballistic missile launch sites with concrete bunkers. Baldwin’s highly detailed reporting accurately stated the conclusions of the CIA’s most recent national intelligence estimate.

The president told McCone to set up a domestic task force to stop the flow of secrets from the government to the newspapers. The order violated the agency’s charter, which specifically prohibits domestic spying. Long before Nixon created his “plumbers” unit of CIA veterans to stop news leaks, Kennedy used the agency to spy on Americans.