They irreversibly erased an utterly priceless inscription on a UNESCO site central to the history of roughly half the world's population. No worries though. It was an accident:

Iraqi workers erased an ancient Hebrew inscription from the tomb of biblical prophet Ezekiel while renovating a nearby mosque, Army Radio reported on Sunday. The tomb is located south of Baghdad in the village of Al Kilf... Professor Shmuel Morre of Hebrew University, who was born in Baghdad, says the istorical damage is irreversible. "There are Muslim elements that are attempting to erase the Jewish character of the tomb," Army Radio quoted Morre as saying... the Iraqi government dispelled claims the damage was done on purpose, and asserted that it sees the Jewish sites as assets important for tourism.

First of all, no. Reports have been trickling out for weeks predicting that something this outrage was in the works. The plan is to build a mosque on the site and you can't have the tomb being all Jewish in the middle of a mosque.

But let's play along. The Iraqi government genuinely has been focusing on tourism and - the state's hostility to Israel aside - this stunt can't help. So maybe these workers were just really clumsy and, in the process of restoration, sandblasted an ancient inscription. Failing that, the best-case scenario for the government is that the workers were just freelancing.

Then this would merely be a destruction of ancient artifacts done to further the Islamist goal of wiping out pre-Islamic history, part and parcel of the Taliban's destruction of the Buddha statues or the Turks' ongoing claims on Hagia Sophia. If that's the case then you have to appreciate how even the official narrative involves renovating a nearby mosque. Metaphorical!

Iraqi Muslims have also taken to attacking churches and Christian schools, indulging in the occasional random murder and baby killing:

Last week 100 Christian leaders and politicians of all religions held an emergency meeting just before fresh violence broke out in the northern city of Mosul, with attacks on churches and Christian schools. On Tuesday a baby was killed and 40 people, including schoolchildren, were injured in three simultaneous bombings. Two days ago a Christian man was shot dead as he travelled to work... In late 2008, killings of Christians in Mosul by insurgent groups left 40 dead and 12,000 fleeing their homes. Fadi reeled off a string of recent, smaller-scale attacks against Christians, fearful that the same level of violence would return.

I've got an idea. Let's put the Palestinian Authority in charge of Jewish and Christian holy sites. Sure they're actively destroying Jewish artifacts on the Temple Mount and in Hebron, to say nothing of how they desecrated Joseph's Tomb and turned it into a mosque. In fact this "tombs to mosques" thing is in danger of becoming something of a pattern.

But respect for non-Islamic faiths is an integral part of practicing "real Islam." I read that somewhere. So let's take a chance.

References and related after the jump...

You know what's so weird about this? There were a whole slew of foreign policy experts who predicted that engagement by newly inaugurated President Obama would moderate Assad and peel Syria away from Iran. And now the exact opposite is happening. Not only is Assad - by his own admission - closer to Iran than ever, but the Syrians have even returned to destabilizing Iraq and directly endangering American lives:

An al-Qaida front group said Tuesday it carried out last week's truck bombings on government targets in Baghdad, attacks that Iraq has said also involved plotters among Saddam Hussein loyalists based in Syria. As the Iraqi government tries to fend off criticism for security lapses, it has focused its anger on Syria and demanded that Damascus hand over two suspected members of Saddam's ousted Baath Party whom it has linked to the attacks.

On Tuesday, Iraq escalated the diplomatic confrontation with its neighbor by recalling its ambassador to Syria. Syria, in turn, ordered its ambassador home and said that unless the Iraqi government provided evidence, Syria would consider the claims to be fabricated "for political goals." The Aug. 19 blasts that tore through the foreign, finance and defense ministries killed more than 100 people, weakening confidence in Iraq's security forces.

I wonder if the Al Qaeda cretin who confessed that Syria trained him to fight in Iraq counts as sufficient "evidence" for Assad:

Iraq aired a confession from a suspected al Qaeda militant Sunday who accused Syrian intelligence agents of training foreign fighters like himself in a camp before sending them to fight in Iraq. The videotaped accusations, aired by Baghdad security spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi in a news conference, could worsen a row between Iraq and Syria over accusations that Syria supports Islamist militants responsible for attacks in Iraq. Iraq and Syria recalled their ambassadors last week after Baghdad demanded Damascus hand over two alleged masterminds of bombings in Baghdad that killed almost 100 people, mainly at two government ministries.

I'm thinking it must, given how exquisitely rational the regime is, per our vaunted foreign policy establishment.

References:
* US the key to Syrian rehabilitation: analysts [AFP]
* Syria And Iran Pretty Psyched About Renewed Alliance, "Resistance Front" Against US And Israel [MR]
* Iraq focuses bombings blame on operatives in Syria [AP]
* Iraq al Qaeda militant says Syria trained him [WaPo]

Previously:
* Syria Responds To Obama's Outreach By Strengthening Ties With Iran
* Aww: Al Jazeera Reports On "Real Appreciation" For Obama In Syria
* Obama's Anti-Israel Diplomacy Spectacularly Fails To Win Even A Single Arab Or Muslim Concessions

The 150,000 Jews who were forced out of Iraq in 1948 - the Jewish community in Iraq having stretched back to almost 600 BC - remain uncompensated by any national or international body. But these Palestinian tools, who enthusiastically supported Hussein while he waged war against the West and supported genocidal terrorism, get resettled in sunny Southern California.

I wonder if the State Department will put them in Orange County. They'd fit right in:

The State Department confirmed today that as many as 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians - once the well-treated guests of Saddam Hussein and now at outs with much of Iraqi society - will be resettled in the US, mostly in southern California, starting this fall. It will be the largest-ever resettlement of Palestinian refugees into the US - and welcome news to the Palestinians who fled to Iraq after 1948 but who have had a tough time since Mr. Hussein was deposed in 2003...

"Really for the first time, the United States is recognizing a Palestinian refugee population that could be admitted to the US as part of a resettlement program," says Bill Frelick, refugee policy director at Human Rights Watch... But some critics say the State Department is sloughing off its problems onto American cities, especially since in this case the Palestinians were sympathizers of Hussein, who was deposed by the US.

Palestinian refugees came to Iraq in successive waves over several decades, first in 1948, then in 1967, and in 1991.

You know why there was an uptick in Palestinian emigration to Iraq in 1991? Because they were so enthused about how Hussein launched Scuds at Israeli population centers - remember the videos of Palestinians dancing on rooftops as missiles flew overhead - that they simply had to be closer to him. And he, always ready to bolster his image as an anti-Jewish warmonger, was more than willing to accept them.

Which begs the question: has any other country in history ever imported specifically the most enthusiastic supporters of an enemy they just defeated? Or are we the first to claim that particular "moral obligation" gold medal?

References:
* Iraqi Support for and Encouragement of Palestinian Terrorism [Israeli MFA]
* Risking Israel's ire, US takes 1,350 Palestinian refugees [CSM]
* Terrrorists Hiding in Plain View at UC Irvine [MR]

Previously:
* State Department Outreach Results In "Multiple Collaborative Efforts" With Islamists (Plus: State To Revolutionize Arab And Muslim Relations By Giving More "Respect")
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields)
* State Department Tries To Cleanse Obviously Illegal "No Jews Allowed" Application But Is Too Fucking Stupid To Turn Off Track Changes

Rahm's spin to Newsweek about this bizarre appointment was that Biden "knows the players... he brings a lot of experience and expertise on this issue to the table." Which is weird, because he actually seems to know nothing about the players and keeps making experienced, expert recommendations that would trigger full-blown regional wars.

Here are your candidates for Biden's dumbest Iraq-related comment or idea. I've dumped a poll after the jump if you feel particularly strongly about one of the choices:

(A) Calling the success of the surge a "fantasy" - At the present there seems to be a consensus that this was at best a touch over-wrought, displaying a less than astute understanding of Iraq. Just wait a few months though. As violence continues to escalate, the left will begin reciting no end of talking points demonstrating that the surge never fixed anything. Which brings us to...

(B) Claiming that he got shot at inside the Green Zone - That was quite the politicized Walter Mitty fantasy, given that the election pivoted on foreign policy judgment pivoted on the success of the surge and the stabilization of Iraq. Open question: what's worse, that he was intentionally making it up or that he's actually delusional and has no understanding of 2006-2009 Iraqi security dynamics?

(C) Crafting a plan to partition Iraq into 3 regions - This was so blisteringly stupid that Iraqi factions locked in a civil war came together to mock Biden in unison. It's still a weight on his presence in the region. The particularly awesome thing about this plan - which would have codifying ethnic boundaries and undercut the nationalist Iraqis of the Anbar Awakening - is that it also would have guaranteed Iranian and Saudi intervention. "Experience and expertise."

(D) Thanking Zapatero for Spain's help in Iraq - I don't think this was technically a gaffe, at least not in the sense that he didn't know Zapatero bailed on Iraq. Biden's been obsessed with the awesomeness of post-appeasement Spain since the election: it was one of the repeated, obnoxious namechecks that he kept going to during the VP debate, setting up the MSM to coo about his mastery of geopolitics. So it probably seemed automatic to praise them for something. Or maybe he really does think that Spain's ignoble abandonment of the Coalition was helpful, to the extent that it undermined Bush.

(E) The US has to be "much more aggressive in forcing [Iraqi officials] to deal with" issues - This was a few months ago. What a charmer. He's going to be welcomed with open arms in Baghdad.

Click through for the poll. I turned off PollDaddy's built-in comments, but feel free to explain your vote under this post on MR's Facebook Page.

I guess he's done with his other formal responsibilities, like running the US economy and fixing our foreign intelligence apparatus. It'd be a pity if he let all his spare time go to waste, idle hands and the devil's playground and all that. So I'm thinking this is good:

Vice President Joe Biden's official portfolio is expanding. NEWSWEEK has learned that President Obama has asked Biden to take the lead role on Iraq as the U.S. begins its scheduled drawdown of combat troops, a move that comes as administration officials are expressing concerns about the uptick in violence and political instability in the region. Biden's role will be something of an unofficial envoy to Iraq, though he won't handle day-to-day dealings with officials on the ground. The goal is to "raise the level" in hopes that Biden's stature encourages Iraqi officials to bridge their political differences, says a senior administration official who didn't want to be named talking about high-level personnel decisions. "He knows the players," White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel tells NEWSWEEK. "He brings a lot of experience and expertise on this issue to the table, and the president trusts him."

He certainly does know the players. He doesn't technically know what any of them do, which is how he ends up thanking people who bailed on Iraq for helping us with Iraq. At least the country isn't heating up again, with jihadists infiltrating from Syria at the same time that the Obama administration is sucking up to Assad. Supple and incisive geopolitical minds, this bunch.

Whatever. The media's more than ready to cover for him on Iraq, just like they've been doing on everything else since the election campaign.

References and previously after the jump...

Of course he did:

President Obama released his FY 2009 supplemental request... asking for $83.4 billion to fund ongoing military, diplomatic and foreign assistance activities... There are programs included in this supplemental request that could otherwise be funded in the base budget. Some of the major items requested in this supplemental are long-term acquisition programs that are not directly related to ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan...
* $600 million to purchase four new F-22 fighter jets;
* $400 million for a new Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capabilities Fund;
* $3.6 billion to train and equip Afghanistan Security Forces;
* $806.2 million to upgrade the U.S. diplomatic facilities in Pakistan; and
* $200 million for budget support to the Palestinian Authority.

Nothing like hiding $200 million's worth of de facto Hamas funding in an "emergency funding for our troops" request that's insulated from political opposition. Although it couldn't have been that well insulated since the original request was for $800 million. Still - fingers crossed that they pick up the slack in the regular budget, right?

I'm not sure exactly what these funds are earmarked for. They could be going to Gaza infrastructure, freeing up Hamas to move more money into attacks and war crimes. Or they could be going to Fatah weapons, getting hardware into the region so that Hamas can get it sooner rather than later. Either way, at least we know that boosting Hamas is now officially shovel-ready.

Less shovel-ready: offensive and defensive military cooperation with Israel. F-22 projects employed 95,000 Americans and boosted American and Israeli offensive capabilities. They were - at worst - nowhere near as inefficient as the rest of the stimulus black hole. But whatever. The Palestinians will probably put the money to better yes.

And it's not like Israel will be needing any offensive capabilities, since they're cooperating with the US to develop next-generation Arrow-3 interceptors. Except not:

Israel's Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile may be one of the first victims of U.S. President Barack Obama's defense spending cuts. Ynet, the Web site of the respected Tel Aviv daily Yediot Aharonot, reported Monday that U.S. funding for the Arrow-3 program is likely to be eliminated... Ynet reported that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, a strong enthusiast for the Arrow-3 program, recently met with a delegation of visiting U.S. senators and congressmen; following that meeting, he briefed a private meeting of his Labor Party, in which he warned of the pressures to kill the Arrow-3.

It's fine though because Israel doesn't face a missile threat. Nor if it faced such a threat would it need access to home grown anti-missile technologies. In the absolute worst case the Israelis can always count on the White House to support them on critical national defense issues.

Well, unless the Israelis want support for an operation against Iran's genocidal mullahs. Then they're out of luck.

References and previously after the jump...

Foreign policy experts have been insisting for 15 years that Iranian moderates will take over and reciprocate US confidence building measures, if only the bumbling Democrats and evil Republicans would reach out to Iran. They said it during the Clinton years so the Clinton administration apologized for past US abuses. That didn't work. Undaunted, they said it during the Bush years so the Bush administration held 28 rounds of talks and offered a Grand Bargain.

That failed too. Iranian moderates - such as they are - gave way to Iranian hardliners gave way to Iranian millenialists. But instead of considering the possibility that "reaching out to batshit crazy ideologues" is a bad idea, these sophisticates unblinkingly insisted that the US wasn't reaching out enough (they also blamed Israel, obviously, but that's not what this post is about).

So Obama did his Al Araybia interview - Al Araybia being, according to our vaunted State Department betters, the "good" jihadist outlet - as one of his many rebuffed offers to meet Iran over nukes. It was, weirdly, rebuffed. Then it was rebuffed again. And again. Now the mullahs are insisting that they won't meet unless they get assurances that they'll get to keep their nukes. I haven't done all the math on that but I suspect it might defeat the purpose.

The neat thing is that now they've found a way to rebuff Obama's outreach in a totally new context. Change!

On a visit to Iraq on Wednesday, Iran's foreign minister ruled out holding new security talks with the United States and Iraq, saying improved security made them unnecessary. He spoke on a day when a car bomb and a series of smaller explosions killed at least 18 people here in Baghdad and wounded dozens. The foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, arrived in Baghdad a day after Iran's president raised the possibility of direct talks with the United States. Mr. Mottaki's remarks, however, suggested that Iran was not yet prepared to cooperate with the Obama administrationon American operations in Iraq, which Iran bitterly opposes.

The last five years have seen quite literally thousands of articles advising Bush to meet with Iran specifically over Iraq. The only thing easier than publishing an anti-Bush diatribe about the "common interests" that the US and Iran shared in Iraq was publishing a condescending anti-Bush diatribe about the "common interests" that the US and Iran shared in Iraq. Here are the top three hits for "common interest iraq stability iran" because this is the blogosphere and I'm supposed to do that.

Not that it matters. It's not like being spectacularly wrong costs foreign policy professionals anything. They know the name of Iran's former deputy infrastructure minister and he assures them that moderates are really close to making a comeback. Do you know the name of Iran's former deputy infrastructure minister? That's what I thought.

References and previously after the jump...

In difficult times like these - finals to grade, dissertations to write - I appreciate it when stories write themselves:

An Egyptian man said on Wednesday he was offering his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad on Sunday. The daughter, Amal Saad Gumaa, said she agreed with the idea. "This is something that would honor me. I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I were attached to this hero," she told Reuters by telephone.

You know who's really psyched about this? Al-Zaidi's father. And as long as Amal doesn't ever want a divorce or try to commit adultery she should be able to stay not dead. Plus she'd be attached to a guy who elegantly demonstrates mass pathology. Aww!

Anyway, here's a post by Carl where a Palestinian Koran expert expounds about the relative metaphysical purity of male and female urine. I've been saving it for just this kind of special occasion.

References:
* Father offers daughter to shoe-thrower [Reuters]
* Algeria: Sex With Daughters-in-Law Divinely Ordained in Islam [Zippers]
* Pakistani Law Minister: Islam Does Not Allow A Woman To Divorce [MEMRI]
* Pak Taliban kill married woman for 'adultery' [Rediff]
* Of Shoes and Rage [ShrinkWrapped]
* 'Male urine less impure than female urine' [Israel Matzav]

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Israeli Biotech Industry Skyrockets As Women CEOs Lead the Way [Video]
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - If You're In Lebanon You Have To Ignore Sexist Muslim Atrocities And Hysterically Call For Anti-Jewish Genocide Instead
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Islamism in the Netherlands

I don't really expect radical jihadists to not murder Christian converts. I mean, it'd be nice if there wasn't a wave of beheadings in Somalia or if fathers and teenage girls weren't being killed in Britain. But I understand that you can't really go around giving people freedom of religion - what if they exercise it? But is it really too much to ask people not to ethnically cleanse Iraq?

Several months ago I reported that Iraq was turning into the Islamic Republic of Iraq , as Christianity is clearly under attack there. Today a new report comes out showing that the situation for Iraqi Christians has gotten even worse.... Christians flee Iraqi city after killings, threats, officials say... At least 900 Christian families have fled Mosul in the past week, terrified by a series of killings and threats by Muslim extremists ordering them to convert to Islam or face possible death, officials said Saturday.

And the fate of Christians who don't get out is exactly what you think it is:

One grey-haired woman understands more than most the fear that has gripped Iraq's beleaguered Christian community over the past month. Her brother, Bashar al-Hazim, was among the first to be murdered in a wave of targeted killings that has forced more than 2,000 Christian families to flee the northern city of Mosul. Masked gunmen walked up to Mr Hashim as he stood with his two children outside their house in the east-side of Mosul in late September. They demanded to see his identity card, confirmed he was Christian and executed the 41-year-old on the spot... "We're peaceful people. When my brother was executed he had no enemies. Why was he killed? He was not a member of a party. There was no reason except for being Christian," the woman, dressed in a black gown, said.

If this "convert or die" thing seems familiar, it's because the exact same thing is happening in the Punjab province of Pakistan right now. In Kabul, on the other hand, they're not even going through the motions of coercing conversions. They're just outright massacring Christians. Why? Probably because of something Israel did.

References:
* Muslims behead Christian convert from Islam in Somalia [Spencer]
* Islamists killed my husband because he had converted to Christianity – widow [Scotsman]
* Imam's daughter in hiding after her conversion to Christianity sparked death threats [Mail Online]
* Iraqi Christians Told to Convert, pay Jizyah or Die [IsraPundit]
* Pakistani Christians told to convert or die [Spero]
* 'We are killed because we are Christians' [Times Online]
* Taliban Agents Stalking Christians In Kabul [MR]

Previously:
* Underwhelming Global Outrage As Iran Enforces New "You Convert From Islam, You Die" Law
* Bush's Pilgrimage To Bethlehem Presents Ripe Opportunity For Irony, Frustration
* Another Day, Another Blisteringly Stupid Article About Evangelical Christianity From A Sophisticated Liberal (Plus: Messianic Christianity Got Jews The Balfour Declaration)

I don't really have anything to add to this. I just kind of enjoy constantly reminding people that Biden is breathtakingly stupid:

Joe Biden continues to try to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for Barack Obama. In a stunning statement, Biden acknowledged that Obama’s lack of foreign-policy experience will provoke America’s enemies into creating an international crisis. Biden apparently thinks this is just terrific... "I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate," Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. "And he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you - not financially to help him - we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right."

Iran, by the by, has been been having Hezbollah train Shiite militias to attack our troops in Iraq. So says the NYT, having discovered this 8 months after Hamas admitted it, 7 months after the rest of the media knew about it, and 6 months after American officials insisted upon it. It's important for you to know this now since apparently Obama's going to need your help to figure out what to do.

I can't believe we're losing to these guys.

References and previously behind the jump...

Because this is definitely the kind of thing you want to hold back from Americans who have to decide whether the guy who wants a precipitous withdrawal should be Commander in Chief:

A nearly completed high-level U.S. intelligence analysis warns that unresolved ethnic and sectarian tensions in Iraq could unleash a new wave of violence, potentially reversing the major security and political gains achieved over the last year. U.S. officials familiar with the new National Intelligence Estimate said they were unsure when the top-secret report would be completed and whether it would be published before the Nov. 4 presidential election. The new NIE, which reflects the consensus of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, has significant implications for Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, whose differences over the Iraq war are a major issue in the presidential campaign.

And now, some blisteringly stupid analysis:

The findings seem to cast doubts on McCain's frequent assertions that the United States is "on a path to victory" in Iraq by underscoring the deep uncertainties of the situation despite the 30,000-strong U.S. troop surge for which he was the leading congressional advocate. But McCain could also use the findings to try to strengthen his argument for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq until conditions stabilize.

"But McCain could also use the findings..." Oh you think so doctor? Of course that's what the report implies. What it doesn't imply, on the other hand, is that the US is losing the war or that we're not on a "path to victory." Which makes it almost dishonest for a well-respected media outlet to publish the assertion as straightforward fact. Nothing a little Democratic-style Iraq-related "stretching of facts" can't fix. But still - dishonest.

Not coincidentally, remember how very enthused the left was about the "consensus of 16 intelligence agencies" that concluded that Iran wasn't pursuing nukes? The bona fides of said NIE consensus - which stood contrary to what the rest of the world thinks and the bulk of logical reasoning implies - were held to be absolutely unimpeachable. Expect that sentiment to receive a healthy does of "neoconservative cabal" nuance when this report gets published.

References:
* Lingering tensions could reverse progress in Iraq, U.S. intelligence analysis finds [McClatchy]
* Congressman admits Democrats "stretched the facts," misled anti-war supporters about supposed plans for ending War [Jeff Emanuel]

Previously:
* Iraq Had WMDS
* Obama: We Need To Start Sucking Up To Iran Right Now So We Can Get Out Of Iraq (Plus: Liberal American Jews Torn Between Old Anti-Israel Democrat And New Anti-Israel Democrat)
* Top Obama Adviser Explains Iraq War: Turns Out, It's The Jews' Fault. Again. (Plus: Ha'aretz Political Correspondent’s Pro-Obama Apologism Getting Increasingly Desperate)

This...

More than 3,500 insurgents have been "taken off the streets of Baghdad" by the elite British force in a series of audacious "Black Ops" over the past two years. It is understood that while the majority of the terrorists were captured, several hundred, who were mainly members of the organisation known as "al-Qa'eda in Iraq" have been killed by the SAS. The SAS is part of a highly secretive unit called "Task Force Black" which also includes Delta Force, the US equivalent of the SAS. The prime targets have been those intent on joining the wave of suicide car bombers that claimed around 3,000 lives a month in Baghdad at the height of the terrorist campaign in 2006.

... is as good a time as any to revisit this:

"If they can't identify the enemy or describe the war we’re fighting, it’s very difficult to define whether we've won or lost," Biden said. Biden, the chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, also criticized McCain for putting too much emphasis on Iraq. "If John wants to know where the bad guys live, come back with me to Afghanistan," Biden said. "We know where they reside. And it’s not in Iraq."

Ladies and gentlemen, the Democrats' top foreign policy expert and the "experience and gravitas" half of the Presidential ticket up by 8 in the latest polls. I think I liked him better when he was only going to become the next Secretary of State.

UPDATE: Yup, a veritable foreign policy genius we're dealing with here.

References:
* SAS kills hundreds of terrorists in 'secret war' against al-Qaeda in Iraq [Telegraph]
* Top Surrogates Square Off on Foreign Policies [ABC News]

Previously:
* Ha'aretz Panel Confirms: "Democrats Are The Pro-Israel Party" Is Really Fucking Retarded
* BBC Reporter Upset At Marine For Underplaying Kinder, Gentler Side Of Taliban Lunatics Who Wanted To Skin British Soldiers Alive
* Obama Surrogates Now Openly And Demonstrably Lying About Biden's Anti-Israel Policies

Just so everybody's clear:

Iran's top leader said his country would not bend to international pressure and give up its nuclear program, according to state television. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, said Iran would continue its nuclear program despite Western efforts to thwart it with sanctions. "No threat can hinder the Iranian nation from its path," he said.

And of course the global "what the fuck" reply to the NIE has done absolutely nothing to stop the left from insisting that talk of Iranian nuclearization is just so much neocon warmongering. But maybe an incentives package will dissuade Tehran. Sure we've been skeptical to the point of pedantry about the possibility - but maybe it could happen:

An Iranian diplomat says the West's package of incentives is aimed at damaging Tehran's image and bringing more pressure on it. "They (Western powers) expect Iran to exchange its valuable achievements with their worthless incentives, but they should know that the Iranian officials and people are united in defending their great achievements on the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," Iran's Ambassador to Indonesia, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said in a meeting with the Indonesian Parliament Vice Speaker, A.M. Fatwa.

Or not. At least Iran isn't upgrading its ties with Egypt with an eye on slipping nonconventional weapons into Gaza. And at least NATO SecGen Scheffer isn't convinced that Iranian nuclearization will trigger an unstoppable tsunami of global proliferation.

And at least Obama's commitment to dialogue is exactly the kind of thing that works with the Iranians:

Iran says it will not hold a new round of talks with the US on security in Iraq until American forces end their current assault against Shiite militias. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini's announcement Monday is the first official confirmation that the talks will be suspended. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency quoted an unnamed senior Iranian negotiator Saturday as saying new talks were not possible with continued US attacks against the Iraqi people.

Super.

References:
* Ayatollah: Iran won't stop nuke program [JPost]
* 'Iran may have resumed nuclear program' [JPost]
* Mathematical Proof That Negotiating With Iran Is Stupid. Not Wrong. Stupid. [MR]
* 'West's incentive package worthless'
* Renewed Iran-Egypt Ties? [JPC]
* NATO chief: More nations could follow Iran and North Korea [JPost]
* Iran suspends talks with US over security in Iraq [JPost]

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Iran Has Legal Slavery And Rape Of Prepubescent Girls. They Call It "Temporary Marriage".
* Obligatory Post About Iran's "Hezbollah Radiation Will Destroy Israel" Threat (Plus: Mugniyah Assassination Dramatically Demonstrates Absurdity Of Liberal Foreign Policy Sophistication)
* Iran: Israeli Self-Defense is a Cause for War

What better way to respond to Iran's 6,000 new centrifuges - ostensibly a five-fold increase their enrichment capacity - than by begging them to mediate a disgraceful US withdrawal from one of the front lines in the global war against political Islam?

Shifting the focus of the presidential race to the Iraq war, John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton bickered during Senate hearings about bringing troops home, while Barack Obama repeated his position that a dialogue must be held with Iran if the US seeks to improve the situation in Iraq. According to Obama, while he wants US troops out of Iraq, he would not initiate a precipitous withdrawal. And he said talking regularly to the Iranians is critical to getting to the point where it would be safe to end American involvement. "I do not believe we are going to be able to stabilize the situation without them," Obama said.

And on that note - here's a story about how the real struggle in American Judaism is between the most anti-Israel candidate evuh and the woman who smooched Suha Arafat after that conspiracy monger smeared Israeli Jews with an age-old blood libel. of course it is:

For Nancy Feinberg, 82, the election is also "all about change," but she is casting her lot with Barack Obama. "I like what he says about everything," said Feinberg as she welcomed volunteers at an Obama campaign office in suburban Philadelphia. Despite their disparate ages and divergent choice of candidates, these two Jewish women have much in common: Both are registered Democrats, both reside in Philadelphia suburbs that make up Montgomery County, and both are passionate about and are working hard to help their candidates win in the critical Pennsylvania primary on April 22.

Also, both are idiots. Not as wall-to-wall retarded as Ohio Jews. But still not very good at picking sides.

References:
* Good News: Iran Adds Another 6,000 Centrifuges To Natanz [MR]
* 'We can speed up enrichment 5-fold' [JPost]
* Obama again calls for talks with Iran [JPost]
* Suburban Jews could swing vote in Pennsylvania [JPost]
* Terrorist Apologist James Zogby: It's Totally Awesome How Democratic Jews Boost Arab-American Political Platforms [MR]
* Ohio Jewish Democrats: "Hey, How About We Make The Most Anti-Israel Candidate Evuh The Next US President?" [MR]
* Confirmed: Republicans More Supportive Of Israel Than Democrats By "Significant Margin" [MR]

Previously:
* Isn't It About Time For Democratic Jews To Stop Electorally Empowering The Ahmadinejad-Supporting Left?
* More Democrats Repeat Anti-Semitic Canards, Embrace Particularly Anti-Semitic Sounding Parts Of Walt And Mearsheimer
* Memo To Democratic Jews: "US Engagement In The Peace Process" Is Bad For Israel, Barack Obama Edition

First it was Democratic military guru Wes Clark and his disturbingly familiar "New York money people" theory. Some people at the time suggested that he was getting his dual loyalty ideas from tomes of rank anti-Semitism like Protocols. That was an overreaction. It turns out that this is just the way Democratic military experts talk:

Last week, Barack Obama's military adviser and national campaign co-chairman Merrill "Tony" McPeak accused former President Bill Clinton of "using divisive tactics and unfairly trying to question Barack Obama's patriotism." McPeak, a former chief of staff of the Air Force, previously supported Howard Dean and then John Kerry. He has campaigned for Obama and cut commercials claiming that Obama has the "right stuff" to be Commander in Chief. His job is to burnish Obama's image as a guy tough enough to be President... The interviewer asked McPeak: "So where's the problem? State? White House?" McPeak replied: "New York City. Miami. We have a large vote -- vote, here in favor of Israel. And no politician wants to run against it." Translation (as if it's needed): Jews -- who put Israel over every American interest -- control America's policy on the Middle East.

Thus does Obama continue his unbroken streak of filling his campaign with high-ranking advisers who are consumed by their burning desire to screw Israel - and failing to appoint a single one who isn't. We don't know of any reason to think that Obama is personally an anti-Semite. But he certainly seems more comfortable around the kind of people who sound like anti-Semites.

Ha'aretz's political correspondent Shmuel Rosner, by the by, seems to have developed a new habit of making awful pro-Obama arguments and choosing particularly absurd pro-Obama headlines. But we held off on concluding that he's totally in the tank for the most anti-Israel campaign evuh because he's historically been reasonably thoughtful and careful. His recent act of defiant pro-Obama pique was definitely suspicious:

Remember earlier this week how the media reported - probably on the basis of false anti-Bush leaks from inside the Pentagon - that a new report cleared Saddam of ties to AQ? Turns out, not so much:

A new Pentagon report on Iraq and Terrorism has the news media buzzing. An item on the New York Times blog snarks, "Oh, By the Way, There Was No Al Qaeda Link." The ABC News story that previews the full report concludes, "Report Shows No Link Between Saddam and al Qaeda." How, then, to explain this sentence about Iraq and al Qaeda from the report's abstract: "At times, these organizations would work together in pursuit of shared goals but still maintain their autonomy and independence because of innate caution and mutual distrust"? And how to explain the "considerable overlap" between their activities which led not only to the appearances of ties but to a "de facto link between the organizations?"

At least the anti-Bush partisans sprinkled throughout the Pentagon are only politicizing intelligence about past conflicts. It would really suck if they intentionally manipulated something as important as Iran intel just to resentfully spite the Administration.

References:
* Saddam supported at least two al-Qaeda groups: Pentagon Update: What it means [Hot Air]
* The New Report on Iraq and Terror [Weekly Standard]
* WaPo: NIE Conclusions Were Engineered By Easily Identifiable, Hysterically Anti-Bush State Department Washouts [MR]

Previously:
* A Neoconservative Manifesto?
* Democrats Take a Brave Stand Against Israeli Self-Defense Israeli Self-Defense and Other Stuff Too
* Los Angeles Times Dishonest about Pentagon-Funded Report, Recommends Israel Disarm

Peacefully killed and mutilated, mind you:

Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings," the police chief said Sunday... "The women of Basra are being horrifically murdered and then dumped in the garbage with notes saying they were killed for un-Islamic behavior," Khalaf told The Associated Press. He said men with Western clothes or haircuts are also attacked in Basra, an oil-rich city some 30 miles from the Iranian border and 340 miles southeast of Baghdad. "Those who are behind these atrocities are organized gangs who work under cover of religion, pretending to spread the instructions of Islam, but they are far from this religion," Khalaf said.

Why do we have a feeling that "those who are behind these atrocities" would beg to differ? And that several hundred million of their friends scattered throughout Asia and Europe would similarly decline to assent to this lay theology? And yet - this guy is on the front lines risking his life to fight back against Islamic thugs trying to drag his country into the dark ages, which we're douchebags in an LA studio taking pot shots at his soundbites. And yet again - isn't it a little suspicious that the Religion Of Peace narrative appeared in the AP lede to frame a news story that's actually about how it's not? If you click through make sure you check out the very, very bottom quote - just like with the the Iranian woman who was suicided by police, the debate revolves around the proper punishment women should recieve for violating sharia law rather than the existence of the laws themselves.

References:
* Vigilantes kill 40 women in Iraq's south [AP]
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - If You Sit With Your Fiance In The Park, Iranian Police May Have To Strangle You To Death [MR]

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Iran Has Legal Slavery And Rape Of Prepubescent Girls. They Call It "Temporary Marriage".
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Pathological Islamism in Germany
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - Your Saudi Husband Isn't Allowed To Beat You In The Face Because It "Makes Your Face Ugly"

Best media bias ever (via Say Anything)

References:
* As violence falls in Iraq, cemetery workers feel the pinch [McClatchy Newspapers]

Previously:
* Cal Perry, This Week's CNN Mouthpiece For Hamas Propaganda, Is An Idiot
* BBC, CBS Now Just Making Stuff Up About Israeli Military
* UPI Publishes Anti-Israel Propaganda as "News", Is Really Bad At Hiding It

Oh, those evil racist genocidal Jews with their evil racist genocidal ways:

Three Israeli doctors on Tuesday screened 40 Iraqi children suffering from heart disease in a rare instance of cooperation between people from Israel and the Arab country. The doctors said they hoped their actions will improve relations between the two Mideast nations and ease tensions between Israel and the rest of the Arab world. Dr. Sion Houri, director of the pediatric intensive care unit at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel, said he thought ties and friendship were being built through his work in Jordan with the Iraqi children. "Our only previous exchanges with the Iraqis are the Scud missiles", he said, referring to the missiles Iraq, under former dictator Saddam Hussein, fired on Israel during the 1991 Gulf War.

This is of course nothing new. MK Aryeh Eldad - who is regularly and literally accused by the left of being genocidal - is explicit that his role as a doctor and human being compels him even to treat injured terrorists. But it does suggest something unseemly about the motives of the boycott leaders who are trying to crush the Israeli medical industry because of the racism of Israeli doctors.

References:
* Israeli doctors screen Iraqi heart patients, defying tensions [Ha'aretz]
* MK Dr. Aryeh Eldad: "Once The Terrorist Is A Patient... I Will Try To Save His Life" [Video] [MR]
* World Medical Association Trying To Destroy Israeli Medical Network, Bleeding Edge Israeli Medical Industry [Video] [MR]

Previously:
* British Doctors Don't Like Israeli Doctors Because... Well, For Some Sort Of Reason
* Israel Tops World In R&D Investment, 2nd In Education [Video]
* Israeli Public Diplomacy Expert : British Boycott Is Vicious Anti-Semitism

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers
* Israpundit

Sometimes we kind of exaggerate our headlines for effect. Kind of like an eyerolling "how absurd is the left - why don't they just go ahead and go all the way" hyperbole kind of thing. Sometimes it's flat out true because they're totally insane:

early one out of every five Democrats thinks the world will be better off if America loses the war in Iraq, according to the FOX News Opinion Dynamics Poll released Thursday. The percentage of Democrats (19 percent) who believe that is nearly four times the number of Republicans (5 percent) who gave the same answer. Seven percent of independents said the world would be better off if the U.S. lost the war. Overall, 11 percent of Americans think the world would be "better off" if the U.S. lost the war, and 73 percent disagree. Opinion Dynamics Corp. conducted the national telephone poll of 900 registered voters for FOX News from Sept. 25 to Sept. 26. The poll has a 3-point margin of error.

We close with the usual line: reasonable Democrats can say any of the following: (1) they can agree with this incandescently stupid position (2) they can insist that these borderline traitors don't control the Democratic party or (3) they can promise to wrest control of their party back from same. Or they can keep living in a thin bubble of denial insulated by ritualistically muttered catechisms about engagement with genocidal thugs and social policy. Which is what they'll do.

References:
* FOX News Poll: Nearly 1 in 5 Democrats Say World Will Be Better Off if U.S. Loses War [Fox News]

Previously:
* This Week's Litany Of Reasons Why Democratic Jews Are Either Anti-Israel Or Lying To Themselves
* Harry Reid: Rush Limbaugh Worthy Of Congressional Condemnation, MoveOn's Attack On General Petraeus Totally In Bounds
* MR Has A Question For Democratic Jews: Are You Fucking Retarded?

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers

We have no idea how they got hold of this video. This is one of the genuinely iconic moments in Israeli history, an image that perfectly captures Israelis' refusal to stop enjoying life in the face of genocidal Arab intentions. The scene is the Jerusalem Theater on Sat, Feb. 23, 1991 - the eve of Operation Desert Storm. The Arab state of Iraq has invaded and occupied the Arab state of Kuwait. A coalition of historically Christian and Muslim countries has issued an ultimatum to Iraq - set to expire within minutes - to withdraw. So naturally, everyone expects Iraq to start launching missiles, potentially tipped with chemical or biological warheads, at the Jewish State of Israeli. This was treated as something perfectly natural in the course of international relations. Israel was asked not to respond, lest the Arab states do something crazy (like attack Israel or each other without provocation - you know, something totally unprecedented).

Isaac Stern flies into Israel to show solidarity. He's performing a concert with the Israeli Philharmonic. Zubin Metha is conducting. In the middle of the concert the air raid sirens start wailin. The orchestra leaves in a rehearsed manner to get protective gear (yeah, artists have to rehearse that stuff in Israel), while the audience puts on gas masks. Stern refuses to leave the stage, and this happens:

It can't be emphasized enough: despite consistent insistence to the contrary by diplomats and journalists, Israelis really are vibrant and happy.

References:
* Isaac Stern vs. Saddam Hussein [AbrahamBenYehuda / YouTube]
* Newsflash: Israelis Are Happy [MR]

Previously:
* Reuters Has No Idea What's Going on in Israel
* Subliminal and The Shadow: Tikva About Terrorism [Video]
* New Palestinian Music Video Is Not Particularly Nice To Jews [Video]

Did the Democrats really stack the GAO surge report by asking if the Iraqis had "completed" the benchmarks? Really?

We're inclined to agree with Hitchens that you don't just quit because things are going poorly...

... but that doesn't excuse this transparent - and, frankly, pathetic - little stunt. How did they possibly think that they could get away with this? How are they getting away with this? Chalk another one up for the contemptible misery of the domestic political press corps.

More and more of our commentary on Democrats is getting reduced to just an disbelieving "really?", italicized for emphasis. This could be because our writing has deteriorated or it could be because Democratic stunts are becoming ever more shameless. Probably little of column A, little of column B.

References:
* A Pathetic Preemptive Strike [Weekly Standard]
* Hitchens on Iraq [Hoover.org / Google Video]
* This Is Simply Surreal. Congressional Democrats Are Refusing To Support the British Hostages Kidnapped By Iran. [MR]

Previously:
* [Video] What You Get When You Vote For Democrats - Empowering Conspiracy Theory Wackos
* Tell Me Again About How Democrats Can Be Trusted
* Memo To Democratic Jews: "US Engagement In The Peace Process" Is Bad For Israel, Barack Obama Edition

Remember how the US kept Israel on a short leash last summer, lest a too-strong strike against Hezbollah destabilize the Lebanese government (that, by the by, Hezbollah was a member of at the time)? Remember how this prevented Israel from bringing the IDF's full force to bear against Iran's proxy, and how eventually the US allowed the UN to step in because Israeli didn't win Lebanon II fast enough? Isn't that paying off bloody dividends:

Militarily, diplomatically, and economically - the United States (and the West more generally) has failed to commit the resources necessary to winning the war against Middle Eastern Islamic fascists. That the various sects and strands of fascists are working together is hardly a surprise, given the circumstances (except the oh-so-nuanced left, which sees distinctions everywhere!)

Prediction: if "international diplomacy" succeeds in forcing Israel to let Hamas terrorists out of the Gaza Strip, you can expect to see not of a few of them end up in Iraq as well.

References:
* Officials: Captured Hezbollah agent helped plan deadly Karbala raid [CNN]

Previously:
* World To Give More Reconstruction Aid To Lebanon. Still Nothing For Israel.
* US State Department: Lebanon Is Not Responsible for Hezbollah
* Hezbollah Gloats - We Spent A Month Hiding Behind the UN's Skirts, So We Won!

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

MR is Fred territory, but we know that some of you are die-hard Rudy fans. You'll understand your folly sooner or later (somewhere around the time that Thompson wins the Republican nomination, we expect) - but in the meantime, we want your pageviews too. So here you go:

Nothing that we really disagree about and lots that we agree emphatically with. But he wasn't on Law and Order, so no go.

Update: Achem.

References:
* RUDY GIULIANI: Gaza Pullout Foreshadows Iraq Pullout [Politicstv / YouTube]

Previously:
* Democratic President Will Appoint Special Envoy To Coerce Israeli Concessions
* Meet Jeri Thompson, the Powerful Republican Consultant That Grassroots Liberals Will Be Attacking As A Bimbo
* Fred Thompson Oppo Research Strongly Correlated With Fred Thompson Winning Polls. Which He's Doing.

Ummm...

You know what would really be assume? A massive summer war in northern Iraq, to go along with the ongoing war in central Iraq and to compliment the war that's about to break out between Israel and Syria. This month is going to be super (h/t: Stanley)

References:
* Turkish Officials: Troops Enter Iraq [AP]

Previously:
* Hey, Remember How We Said That The Iranian General Defected? Yeah...
* Syria and the Problem of Meaning
* EU Pressuring US To Eliminate Visa Requirements For All EU Members. What Could Go Wrong?

Hmmm... wonder what people are going to be talking about this morning:

No real details yet, and if the past is any indication this is going to quickly lead to a disappointing afternoon. But for what it's worth, here's K-LO breaking the news, Jawa's hope against hope celebration, and PJM's roundup.

Robert Spencer is also up a little early this morning, and has some background that it would behoove you to read about red on red violence.

References:
* Internecine Iraqi Incapacitation [NRO Corner]
* Abu Al-Masri Reported Dead [Jawa Report]
* Al-Qaeda Chief in Iraq Killed? [PJM]
* Jihadists kill jihadist [Jihad Watch]

Previously:
* Al Qaeda Trying To Ethnically Cleanse Yemen Of Jews. Again.
* Al Qaeda Targets Israel is Next, Comments on Gender Roles
* 65% of Palestinians support Al Qaeda terrorism

Leaving for the airport in an hour, and Robert Spencer seems determined to make sure that we leave town in a sour mood:

He's got more letters and testimony in the original post. It's depressing to see that Iraq is getting more theocratic after everything the Coalition has fought for. But this will be the entirety of Iraq - and very soon afterwards the entirety of Syria and Egypt - if the US withdraws before establishing a stable, non-confessional Iraqi regime. Iraq will become the new Afghanistan (or is Afghanistan already the new Afghanistan)? Except it'll be what Afghanistan would have become if it was floating on a sea of oil.

References:
* Muslims forcing Christians in Baghdad to pay jizya [Dhimmi Watch]

Previously:
* Nazi Toy Soldiers In Korean Apple Seller Store (Plus: Multiculturalism Is An Excuse)
* Turns Out, Iraq did have WMD capability. Who Knew?
* Losing In Iraq Seems Like A Bad Idea

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit
* The Astute Bloggers

UPDATE 7 - Pending further developments, it looks like this one is wrapped up. Best quote of the day has to go to Larry Fetters, LAX security directory for TSA: "There never was a threat". No kidding - just ask the passengers and crew who sat above Maliki's luggage after TSA failed to pull it from the plane, who are very lucky that this was a false alarm. No thanks to TSA.

UPDATE 6 - Now this is interesting:

We've got Iraqi nationals on security watchlists (of some sort or another - obviously not the no-fly list) wandering around airports with wires strapped to their bodies. They're so suspicious that they raise red flags for LAX behavior profilers. And still they're not pulled aside until they're in the middle of what must have been a packed security line. This nation's airports are breathtakingly vulnerable.

Oh, and of course - and still the plane was allowed to take off with his luggage, plus 149 passengers and crew who had been failed by security.

UPDATE 5 - Initial reports when the bomb squad was called in had two men being detailed, not one. Coupled with the confusion that must have led to Maliki's luggage (not) being removed from the plane, one really has to wonder - who the hell is supposed to be in charge up there?

UPDATE 4 - 149 people were aboard the flight that was allowed to leave with Maliki's luggage on board.

UPDATE 3 - Newsweek actually focuses on how the flight he was supposed to be on was diverted because nobody bothered to remove the luggage of the Iraqi national who had been stopped for having magnets and wires hidden in body cavities. Well played TSA, well played.

UPDATE 2 - Why was the plane allowed to leave with al-Maliki's luggage, despite the fact that he had been stopped presumably over an hour before takeoff?

Because TSA sucks, and TSA in LAX sucks in ways that are often staggering to contemplate.

UPDATE 1 - Reuters says false alarm:

What was the nonthreatening magnet doing up his rectum and why were there nonthreatening wires attached to it? No details on that part. But given that neither local nor national news is breaking in to cover this, it seems like a nonstory.

ORIGINAL - LA outlets posted news about this a couple hours ago, and we just heard it on the radio now. CNN and Fox News don't seem to have it online, and we just turned on their TV channels. Nothing there either. A reader sends in the following, based on a radio report:

The LAT story linked above doesn't mention anything about a hidden object, although it does say he was carrying a "suspicious object". Also nothing about magnets. We're not sure if that's an error in the radio report of the LA Times downplaying a potential terror plot, but we're sure fuller details should be forthcoming.

References:
* Iraqi national carrying suspicious object detained at LAX [LAT]

Previously:
* Are These Union Jobs?
* Airport Security in This Country is a Bad Joke
* Public Security In Los Angeles Sucks Disgracefully

Of course they are:

At this point, we're tempted to just snark something like "money well spent", and leave it at that. But there's actually something going on here: the biggest complaint from the Left is that reconstruction has been bungled because the US relied too much on a military solution and not enough on diplomacy (at least that's their complaint when they're not advocating retroactively sending in more troops that they never would have agreed to send at the time). But the State Department is too involved in Iraq - there are too many diplomats with their own unique vision of how to be properly cosmopolitan and sophisticated. Too many career diplomats. And somehow, things are not working out. For the umpteenth time this week, we're totally shocked.

References:
* How Much Embassy Is Too Much? [WaPo]

Previously:
* US State Department Shines Again
* The State Department - Traitorous Incompetents or Incompetent Traitors?
* US State Department: By "Shun" Terrorist Governments We Mean "Not Shun"

We were going to wait until tomorrow morning to start blogging again (and thank you all for being so patient while we worked some stuff out), but Hot Air has been following a couple of stories this weekend that you might want to know about. Yesterday Allahpundit gave a rundown of recent raids on AQ strongholds in Afghanistan, including the possibility of one or two big fish. Those raids have been going on for a couple of weeks apparently.

Then this afternoon he posted on reports coming out that the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq has been captured:

Meanwhile, on the Shiite side, US troops have taken control of Sadr City without firing a shot. This isn't so much good news as inevitable news: with Sadr having ordered his people to lie low and wait out the surge, of course there was no resistance. They want to make sure they're around to take over after domestic pressure forces the US to withdraw from Iraq.

References:
* Breaking: U.S. forces attack senior AQ leader’s hideout in Afghanistan?
* Report: Leader of “Islamic State of Iraq” captured
* U.S., Iraqi Troops Take Baghdad's Shiite Militia Stronghold

Previously:
* Bloggers' Conference Call With Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
* Seattle Times Anti-American "Experts" Proven Wrong Within Hours - Turns Out, Killing Terrorists Didn't Aid AQ
* AQ Celebrates Spanish Surrender

This story is about two weeks old (we came across it while doing some research for another story), but as near as we can tell the only JBlog to pick it up has been Israel Matzav. Is this the formal deal?

What is it with these people's Israel obsession? Can't they think of anything else except the "Jewish cancer" in the Middle East? How could solving a Jewish-Arab conflict have anything to do with a Sunni-Shia conflict two countries over? These people are fighting over the results of a battle that occurred over a thousand years ago - it has absolutely nothing to do with Israel.

Though unbelievably stupid, it certainly is not beyond the realm of possibility - the President himself has said that "there is no question that progress in the Israel-Palestinian conflict will improve the situation in Iraq". In a post-ISG political climate, the Administration seems more willing than ever to sell out one of their most important regional allies for the tiniest ray of hope in Iraq:

The Arab Peace Initiative, of course, calls for the Right of Return - the flooding of Israel by three million of the most violently anti-Semitic people on the planet, a de facto hostile invasion that would be the very real destruction of Israel.

Through last Friday, the US is at least standing firm on not embracing Hamas (despite Russian demands that the Quartet do so). But that was only because Hamas is basically at war with the US's golden haired child, oh-so-moderate Abbas. And the US certainly did commit to reviving land for peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Which now sounds suspiciously like "land for Iraq".

Previously: State Department Helps To Define "fickle Support For Israel", Why "Humanitarian Aid" is a Myth (Or: the Definition of the Word Fungible), The State Department - Traitorous Incompetents or Incompetent Traitors?

All well and good. But did you know that the policy thus far has been to catch the little darlings and then release them?

Seriously - we're trying to be sarcastic here, but we're just failing. Of course the US has been losing in Iraq - they're capturing their enemies and then letting them go back into the battlefield to try again. It's like a playground game - you get captured, and then there's a pause and everyone goes back to where they started. Except it's a war, and it's against the 21st century's greatest threat to Western civilization. So it's nice that US soldiers are allowed to kill them now. Huge step.

Previously: Hamas Victory - Now Can We Start Worrying About Iran?, Another Holy Month? Are You Kidding? (Also, Some Real News About Iraq), Democratic Leader "Pleased" Israel Has No Plans To Defend Itself From Iran

You know, people accuse Ms. Coulter of being insensitive to the sensibilities of the Muslim man on the street. Perhaps. But about a month ago, she published an article claiming (with not a little bit of justification) that she is a voice in the wilderness - and that the pendulum o' sensitivity toward Muslims could use some swinging back in her direction:

Finally, we have an answer: it's not "the holy month of Ramadan" when it's "the holy month of Muharram:

Usually, this is where we'd start the countdown to someone complaining that the US is attacking the Mahdi army during Muharram. But honestly, we figure that said article is already out there somewhere.

Previously: You Have to Admit, Ms. Coulter Has a Point, It's Not Treason It's... Uh... Something Else That's Definitely Not Treason, Iranian Fascists Censor Bloggers, Illustrate Difference Between Actual and Imaginary Fascism

Is it just us, or have the Democrats just officially staked out vaguely racist isolationist fear-mongering as their official position? "Abandon Iraq" is literally their position - a position that, if perhaps nuanced, can be defended. But this is just just above rank "we've done enough for those brown people", which - if it came from a Republican - would be getting described as such.

CNN's shill at the White House just described the President's national call to arms as a public relations campaign. As the Big A is wont to say: nuance.

Previously: OneJerusalem.org Bloggers Conference Call: Natan Sharansky, OneJerusalem.org Conference Call with Senator Rick Santorum, A Neoconservative Manifesto?

Via Hot Air, we just found out about Nabil, an Iraqi blogger who has been putting his life on the line for years to provide testimony about Iraqi life - for good or ill. Now his life has become literally unlivable, and he's asking for help:

The Paypal button is indeed on the top-right. In just three clicks you can - and you should - send him some cash.

Previously: Egyptian Persecution of Bloggers Must Be Uncompromisingly Fought - What Happens Right After That, However, Is Not So Simple, Egyptian Sandmonkey Takes Exception To TIME's Embrace Of Tariq Ramadan, Truncated Catalog Of Syria's Human Rights Atrocities In Lebanon

We're supposed to be impressed that the company that employees Keith Olbermann - the liberal success story, now with almost one-fifth of O'Rielley's viewers - has chosen to declare Iraq a civil war. We'll start calling Iraq a civil war when they start calling France a civil war - given that it's actually a case of French citizens fighting French citizens rather than a foreign-bred and funded insurgency, we think that at least the claim makes sense in the French context.

We do have a question though: if a Muslim sectarian conflict has now risen to the level of a civil war in Iraq, does that mean that NBC is saying that there are ways to interpret Islam in ways other than as a Religion of Peace? Because if so, we expect to see CAIR call for anti-NBC boycotts any minute now - because CAIR is nothing if not consistent, and would never pass up criticizing a news story just because that news story made the Bush administration look bad. Right?

UPDATE (4:00AM PST): We didn't catch this the first time, but the FishBowl LA blurb points out that Oblbermann said in an interview that he doesn't want to become a left-wing version of O'Rielly or Limbaugh. With due respect, his ratings would need to increase by entire orders of magnitude before that would even begin to become a potential worry that he should consider entertaining.

Previously: What? No Snark About Imams Calling For Muslims To Boycott Airlines?, Politically Active Filmmakers Find a Religion-Based Summer Camp They Feel Safe Criticizing, CAIR Protest In So Cal

We don't have time this week to really do anything approaching "analysis", but by the time we get back it'll be too late to post this article from early this week. Mark Steyn on the stakes in Iraq:

Also read the Belmont Club's more extensive roundup of how losing in Iraq is going to be understood by the rest of the world.

Previously: AP Headline and Lede: Syrian War Against Israel Would Be "Resistance", Democrats Partying Like It's 2004, Insulting the Sacrifice Of Coalition of the Willing, Iraq Recognizing Israel - Not So Much