No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

Is Scott McClelland reading Baghdad Bob's notes?

This is what Joe Klein has to say about the situation in Iraq based on the recent National Intelligence Estimate the CIA presented George Bush in July.

If the National Intelligence Estimate is accurate, we are facing a far more dangerous world than existed before the war. Many intelligence and military experts now believe that al-Qaeda has rebuilt its leadership structure and metastasized; that the U.S. military is overburdened and its leaders are likely to tell the next President that they lack the resources necessary to regain control in Iraq; that the U.S. government has lost the credibility to lead the world into action against future threats from, say, Iran or North Korea; that Iraq itself seems in danger of splitting into three chaotic regions, which—in the NIE's worst-case scenario—may lead to civil war.

Time Magazine

You won’t hear that from either Bush or Cheney prior to the election. What you hear from this is a set of statements which are “true, truish or unprovable” but which are either unimportant or divorced from reality.

Whatever we hear in the debates will be more such hot air with no relevance to what is happening in Iraq or will be lies of the kind that take time to prove false. What we will not hear is what has to be done in Iraq because no one at this time knows.