Warren P. Strobel of McClatchy Newspapers notes After two days, no answer to ‘how this ends’

WASHINGTON — They sat behind burgundy-covered witness tables for more than 16 hours of testimony and answered hundreds of questions about the Iraq war, some of them pointed, some of them softballs.

But there was one question that Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, couldn’t, or wouldn’t, answer.

It was the question that Petraeus himself posed rhetorically back in 2003 when he led the Army’s 101st Airborne Division into Iraq: “Tell me how this ends.”

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Position: 29.0 N 94.6 W. [10PM CDT]
Movement: North-Northeast [010°] near 6 mph.
Maximum sustained winds: 65 mph.
Wind Gusts: 75 mph.
TS Wind Radius: 60 miles.
Minimum central pressure: 995 mb.

It is 25 miles South-Southeast of Galveston.

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According to authorities, today [technically, it is the 13^th for Jews and Muslims since sundown] is the first day of the ninth month, Ramadan, in the Islamic calendar.

This is a brief description of the month of fasting and the reasons for it, with more details and links at Wikipedia.

Unfortunately, in recent years, Ramadan has signified an increase in violence in the Middle East.

Happy 5768!

At sunset Rosh Hashanah begins, so get your honey, challah, and apples ready.

Things were a bit more tied to reality in the Senate performance of the Petraeus & Crocker show, and we discover there are some things even they can’t stomach.

John McKay noted the the Warner-Petraeus exchange when General Petraeus won’t say if the war in Iraq makes the US safer. In milspeak that means the general doesn’t believe it makes us safer. If there were any way the general could have convinced himself of the truth of the party line, he would have toed the line.

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Invest 90L has become Tropical Depression Nine and is located 85 miles South-Southwest of Galveston. It looks like it will become a tropical storm before coming ashore around Houston.

Invest 91L has become Tropical Depression Eight and is located 1130 miles East of the Lesser Antilles. This is a prime candidate to become a hurricane, the third of the season, and running generally on the same track as Dean and Felix.

It looks like there is a La Niña [a large area of cooler than normal water] building in the Pacific which generally extends the Atlantic hurricane season.