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Today’s Birthdays

1951 Joey Ramone
1949 Archie Manning
1946 Andre the Giant
1945 Pete Townshend
1941 Nora Ephron
1934 Jim Lehrer
1925 Malcolm X
1897 Frank Capra
1892 Ho Chi-Minh

Today in History

1897 Oscar Wilde is released from jail

On this day in 1897, writer Oscar Wilde is released from jail after two years of hard labor. His experiences in prison were the basis for his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol(1898).

In 1891, the Marquess of Queensbury denounced Wilde as a homosexual. Wilde, who was involved with the marquess’ son, sued the Marquess for libel but lost the case when evidence supported the marquess’ allegations. Because homosexuality was still considered a crime in England, Wilde was arrested. Although his first trial resulted in a hung jury, a second jury sentenced him to two years of hard labor. After his release, Wilde fled to Paris and began writing again. He died of acute meningitis just three years after his release.

Paul Wolfowitz outlined how the United States will wrap things up in Iraq in congressional testimony on Tuesday. Responding to questions regarding how long U.S. troops would be required in Iraq after the turnover of sovereignty in June:

“The course of war is simply not something one can determine,” Wolfowitz told a Democratic questioner in the Lugar committee, but “very substantial” Iraqi security forces would be trained and ready by year’s end.

The administration appears to be setting the stage for a near-term withdrawal from Iraq. Coupled with Powell’s recent comments (”were this interim government to say to us, `We really think we can handle this on our own; it would be better if you were to leave,’ we would leave.”), Wolfowitz’s statement makes it apparent that the administration is formulating an exit strategy. In short: 1) hand over sovereignty to unknown, unprepared, phantom government; 2) quickly reformulate and train an Iraqi military; 3) declare Mission Accomplished (again); 4) leave Iraq quickly.