NRO's "The Corner" notes a strange exit from the Bush-Cheney presentation to the 9/11 Commission. The Corner is right: Lee Hamilton and Bob Kerrey, the ranking Dems on the panel, leaving the meeting early is worthy of more than a mention.

 
The Iraqi public opinion poll is here. Some interesting and counterintuitive findings in it.

 
Tomorrow's Nightline, as reported, will consist entirely of a reading of the names of the soldiers killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom, with their photos. According to media-news site Poynter Online, Sinclair Broadcasting is refusing to air Nightline on its eight ABC affiliates.

Sinclair's refusal is based on a belief that Nightline "appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq." In a remarkable non sequitor, Sinclair says "we would ask that you ... question Mr. Koppel as to why he chose to read the names of the 523 troops killed in combat in Iraq, rather than the names of the thousands of private citizens killed in terrorists attacks since and including the events of September 11, 2001. In his answer, you will find the real motivation behind his action scheduled for this Friday."

In response, ABC has issued a statement saying that "The Nightline broadcast is an expression of respect which simply seeks to honor those who have laid down their lives for this country. ... Contrary to the statement issued by Sinclair, which takes issue with our level of coverage of the effects of terrorism on our citizens, ABC News and all of our broadcasts, including "Nightline," have reported hundreds of stories on 9-11. Indeed, on the first anniversary of 9-11, ABC News broadcast the names of the victims of that horrific attack."

Sinclair's argument is specious; its reasoning is absurd. In its accusation that ABC is "undermin[ing] the efforts of the United States in Iraq," it is stooping to allegations of partisanship unsupported by evidence or logic.

For partisanship, one might want to look at the record of contributions given by Sinclair and its employees in 2004 -- 98% of which went to the GOP -- or some of the questions Sinclair Washington bureau chief Jon Leiberman asked Donald Rumsfeld in September, 2003, questions ranging from classic softballs to sheer hackery:

The Clinton Administration was criticized for being soft on terrorism, not finding Osama. Madeline Albright mentioned that they took their time looking and then she said look, the Bush people can't even find Osama. Where is bin Laden, why can't we find him?

Is negative press emboldening the terrorists in Iraq, do you think?

A State Department friend of mine who's been there [in Iraq] for a long time said the culture is not conducive to democracy, it's winner takes all. This is not a culture that knows how to handle democracy?

Guantanamo real quick. In light of the arrest of James Yee, Senator Charles Schumer has renewed his call for federal investigations into the institutions that train Islamic priests. He said the Bureau of Prisons is doing it through the Justice Department, why not the Department of Defense investigating how Muslim clerics are trained?

Is there a concern that U.S. forces who are Muslim might be compromising national security - religion first, patriotism second? Are you concerned about that?

 
(Wanna-be) Tenured Idiots, Part CXVII: UMass evidently doesn't expect much from its doctoral students, judging by
this editorial:

I've been mystified at the absolute nonsense of being in "awe" of Tillman's "sacrifice" that has been the American response. Mystified, but not surprised. True, it's not everyday that you forgo a $3.6 million contract for joining the military. And, not just the regular army, but the elite Army Rangers. You know he was a real Rambo, who wanted to be in the "real" thick of things. I could tell he was that type of macho guy, from his scowling, beefy face on the CNN pictures. Well, he got his wish. Even Rambo got shot in the third movie, but in real life, you die as a result of being shot. They should call Pat Tillman's army life "Rambo 4: Rambo Attempts to Strike Back at His Former Rambo 3 Taliban Friends, and Gets Killed."

As bad as the polemicism is, the real money graf is this:

After all, whether we like them or not, the Taliban is more Afghani than we are. Their resistance is more legitimate than our invasion, regardless of the fact that our social values are probably more enlightened than theirs.

This is the extreme left reduced to a farce, a ruthless post-Heideggerian focus on the "authenticity" of ethnic and cultural groups coupled with a total lack of interest in the fate of individual humans. Sure, the Taliban and their allies are totalitarians who kill, imprison, torture and oppress women, non-Deobandi Muslims, and various non-Pashtun ethnic groups, of course they're in the pocket of the Pakistani ISI and Islamist terror groups, but who are we in the West to go and liberate Afghanistan? The "resistance" of a sociopathic ideology of oppression is "more legitimate" than liberation. Of such statements are monsters made.

And, parenthetically, pendejo is only figuratively an "idiot." Not in front of the children!

 
David Brooks finally figures out where he lives:

Don't get me wrong. I love living in Washington. I still think it is the least superficial of the interesting American cities, owing to our inability to experience sensual pleasure. But over the past few months it has come to resemble one of those decadent triviality pits, like Paris in the 19th-century French novels.

Past months?

 
It's a bit unfair to pick on the WashTimes for its coverage of Moonie events, but sometimes the disconnect is too great to ignore. Here's how the Washington Times described last month's Unification Church event attended by "Sen. Mark Dayton ... Reps. Roscoe G. Bartlett of Maryland, Christopher B. Cannon of Utah and Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, all [House and Senate] Republicans, and Democratic Reps. Danny K. Davis of Illinois, Harold E Ford Jr. of Tennessee and Sanford D. Bishop Jr. of Georgia:"

Several dozen religious and civic leaders were honored last night in Washington for their "exceptional dedication" as peacemakers.

"Crown of Peace" awards were presented at a dinner at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, the highlight of a three-day conference on peace and reconciliation, which ends today at the Washington Plaza Hotel.

To end divisions of pain, suffering and conflict, "one core principle is necessary — the principle of living for the sake of others," said the Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak, chairman of the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP).

And here's what Sun Myung Moon told the assembled lawmakers at that same event:

The time has come for you as well to open your hearts and receive the secrets that Heaven is disclosing in this age through me. In one sense, I am a human being living with a physical body like each of you. But in the context of Heaven's providence, I am God's ambassador, sent to earth with His full authority. I am sent to accomplish His command to save the world's six billion people, restoring them to Heaven with the original goodness in which they were created.

The five great saints and many other leaders in the spirit world, including even Communist leaders such as Marx and Lenin, who committed all manner of barbarity and murders on earth, and dictators such as Hitler and Stalin, have found strength in my teachings, mended their ways and been reborn as new persons. Emperors, kings and presidents who enjoyed opulence and power on earth, and even journalists who had worldwide fame, have now placed themselves at the forefront of the column of the true love revolution. Together they have sent to earth a resolution expressing their determination in the light of my teaching of the true family ideal. They have declared to all Heaven and Earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent. This resolution has been announced on every corner of the globe.

Personally, my lede would have been, "Republican lawmakers from the House and Senate stood witness Tuesday as Korean cult leader Sun Myung Moon declared himself Messiah at the Dirksen Senate Office Building." But I guess it's really just a matter of emphasis.

 
Be sure to check out the Weekly Standard article on how to win in Iraq. Gerecht's critical point is that "If we lose the Shia, we lose Iraq."

I'm working on a longer piece about Shi'ite coordination in Iraq and its regional implications, but this article covers the major policy issue: keeping Sistani happy as the only possible route to pacification. Sistani, as marja at-taqlid (basically, a cleric so learned that his pronouncements serve as canon for others), has more power than any other cleric in Iraq, and certainly more than Muqtada al-Sadr, who is trading off his family name for otherwise unearned power. However, Sistani's own power is not inviolate, and he has to walk a fine line in dealing with the Coalition and Iraq Shi'ites. For this reason, he has set Najaf as a "red line" we can't cross; it lets the Iraqis know that Sistani is willing to place limits for their benefit while giving us enough room to maneuver in Fallujah and other places (though Samarra's exalted place in Twelver Shi'a Islam should cause us to tread carefully there, too). The current American strategy of isolation and marginalization of al-Sadr is probably the best tactic to use for now.

 
Dennis Ross' speech last night marking Israel's 56th anniversary was an interesting piece; I'll work up my notes a little later today. For now, let's move on to the new Iraqi flag, unveiled by the IGC today:



As most news outlets are reporting (well, not FOX), Iraqis aren't terribly happy with the new flag because it (A) singles out the Kurds for recognition (inexplicably placing them between the Tigris and Euphrates), and (B) forswears the use of the red, black and green colors of virtually every other Muslim and Arab nation in favor of a blue and white color scheme that looks a lot like the Israeli flag.

Now, I understand why the Coalition might not want to invoke the red and black colors of Nasserite pan-Arabism, but on a flag that already has the Islamic crescent, why refuse to use green at all? Why use a color and design that is, to put it mildly, a source of some controversy in that region? And why explicitly reference the Kurds on the flag when you have an admittedly smaller but still diverse set of ethnic groups in the form of Turkomans and Assyrians?

The flag flap is not a major issue, but this kind of geopolitical tone-deafness is just another example of the institutionalized incompetency of our delegates in Iraq.

 
Somewhere to be: Ambassador Dennis Ross at Dallas' Congregation Shearith Israel, 7:30 tonight.

 
The NYT follows up on the London jihadi story:

On Friday, Abu Hamza, the cleric accused of tutoring Richard Reid before he tried to blow up a Paris-to-Miami jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoe, urged a crowd of 200 outside his former Finsbury Park mosque to embrace death and the "culture of martyrdom."