{"id":1914,"date":"2010-07-02T16:01:40","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T21:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=1914"},"modified":"2010-07-02T16:01:40","modified_gmt":"2010-07-02T21:01:40","slug":"political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/02\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICAL SHOCKER! A Whiff of Truth on Afghanistan!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele blasted Obama&#8217;s Afghan troop surge last night at a Connecticut fundraiser.<\/p>\n<p>Steele asked: &#8220;If [Obama&#8217;s] such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that&#8217;s the one thing you don&#8217;t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? Because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Steele&#8217;s comments shirked Republican responsiblity for starting the war &#8211; but even a brief moment of candor on this subject is a shock. <\/p>\n<p>Steele&#8217;s comment produced <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/news\/opinion\/glenn_greenwald\/2010\/07\/02\/cycle\/index.html\">indignant responses from Democrats <\/a>and from neo-conservative laptop bombardiers.<\/p>\n<p>I expect this controversy will be good for another couple laps over the holiday weekend. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele blasted Obama&#8217;s Afghan troop surge last night at a Connecticut fundraiser. Steele asked: &#8220;If [Obama&#8217;s] such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that&#8217;s the one thing you don&#8217;t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? Because everyone who has tried, over a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[42,671],"class_list":["post-1914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-afghanistan"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>POLITICAL SHOCKER! A Whiff of Truth on Afghanistan! - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/02\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"POLITICAL SHOCKER! A Whiff of Truth on Afghanistan! - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele blasted Obama&#8217;s Afghan troop surge last night at a Connecticut fundraiser. Steele asked: &#8220;If [Obama&#8217;s] such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that&#8217;s the one thing you don&#8217;t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? Because everyone who has tried, over a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/02\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-02T21:01:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/07\\\/02\\\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/07\\\/02\\\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"POLITICAL SHOCKER! A Whiff of Truth on Afghanistan!\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-02T21:01:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/07\\\/02\\\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":125,\"commentCount\":3,\"keywords\":[\"Afghanistan\",\"Afghanistan\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/07\\\/02\\\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/07\\\/02\\\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/07\\\/02\\\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\\\/\",\"name\":\"POLITICAL SHOCKER! A Whiff of Truth on Afghanistan! - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-02T21:01:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/07\\\/02\\\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/07\\\/02\\\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/07\\\/02\\\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"POLITICAL SHOCKER! A Whiff of Truth on Afghanistan!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"POLITICAL SHOCKER! A Whiff of Truth on Afghanistan! - James Bovard","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/02\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"POLITICAL SHOCKER! A Whiff of Truth on Afghanistan! - James Bovard","og_description":"Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele blasted Obama&#8217;s Afghan troop surge last night at a Connecticut fundraiser. Steele asked: &#8220;If [Obama&#8217;s] such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that&#8217;s the one thing you don&#8217;t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? Because everyone who has tried, over a [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/02\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2010-07-02T21:01:40+00:00","author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/02\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/02\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"POLITICAL SHOCKER! A Whiff of Truth on Afghanistan!","datePublished":"2010-07-02T21:01:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/02\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\/"},"wordCount":125,"commentCount":3,"keywords":["Afghanistan","Afghanistan"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/02\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/02\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/02\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\/","name":"POLITICAL SHOCKER! A Whiff of Truth on Afghanistan! - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-07-02T21:01:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/02\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/02\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/02\/political-shocker-a-whiff-of-truth-on-afghanistan\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"POLITICAL SHOCKER! A Whiff of Truth on Afghanistan!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1914"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1916,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914\/revisions\/1916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}