The votes are in for this week’s Watchers Council and the winner in the Council category is American Future for “Our Rules of Engagement in Iraq.” Finishing second was “Media Icons” by Done with Mirrors.

Coming out on top in the Non Council category was Daled Amos for “Congressman Conyers and Islam.”

A spot has opened up on the Watchers Council. If you’d like to serve on this noble blogosphere institution, go here and do as you’re told.

I have to confess to being a a little underwhelmed by the AP story of burning mosques and burning Sunnis. Not that I don’t believe the story is important or that the work done by several bloggers hasn’t been outstanding.

It’s just that we’ve been down this road before many times. Conservatives have been questioning the facts about news stories coming out of Iraq for more than 3 years. We questioned stories from the Israeli-Hizbullah war last summer. We have known about the disinformation, the enemy plants, the outrageous bias of the international wire services AP, AFP, Reuters, as well as the BBC.

We have seen photos doctored, stories embellished or faked outright. Anyone remember the “chemical weapon attack” on Fallujah? We have seen civilian body counts inflated and stories of how they died swallowed whole by a press who would rather believe enemy propaganda than their own military; a press who suspends belief when given information that reflects poorly on the American military but insists on triple confirmations before they publish a retraction – if they ever bother.

And they don’t bother. The burning Sunnis were last week’s news, already forgotten in the rush of events. Bush and Maliki. The Iraq Study Group. Obama, Obama, Obama.

In their smug, self righteous little cocoons, the AP and others continue the process of making sausages out of the news. The burning Sunnis were just one mind-numbing atrocity in a Flanders Field of atrocities so who really, really cares down deep if we blew it? Just put up the old firewall of denial, do a cursory follow up by finding some “eyewitnesses” (who probably read about the burning Sunnis in the paper or saw the report on TV), neglect to mention our little police captain problem and that’ll do it. End of story.

AP can do this because ultimately, we are not their clients. Unlike newspapers or TV networks, the AP could give a hoot about the people who actually end up reading their enemy propaganda. The people who pay them are, of course, the newspapers and TV stations that subscribe to their service.

And what does that say then about all of those media outlets who carried this story? Curt at Flopping Aces was able to raise numerous questions about the truth of the burning Sunnis story after a couple of hours of research using nothing more than some common sense, a curious mind, and a modem. If similar questions had been raised in newsrooms across America, I can guarantee you any responsible editor would have put a “hold” on that story. At least until a later revision from AP had been forthcoming.

But that wouldn’t have been good enough. The changing nature of journalism in America means that to a large extent, reporters are almost as incurious about the world as their readers. What would it have cost to pick up the phone and call CENTCOM? The PA officers there got back to Curt within a few hours with the info that contradicted the AP story. Better yet, duplicating Curt’s work, how much trouble would it have been to Google up Capt. Jamil Hussein? Would the fact that he appeared as a source for AP so many times over the previous months raised a red flag in any newsroom in America? I doubt it.

I think the difference between journalists today and those of 20 or 30 years ago is that reporters used to have a thirst for knowledge, an “itch” that could never be scratched. They attacked a story, constantly challenging assumptions, digging ever deeper to see if there was anything else there. They did it not necessarily because they were afraid they were wrong but rather because they were afraid they were missing the true essence of the story.

But the shocking incuriousness of the media who left the vetting of this story to AP and allowed it to appear in newspapers across the country proves that times indeed have changed. Publishers and editors used to stand by everything that appeared in their publication. But how can they do that today if they don’t make even the most cursory of efforts to see that what is printed actually happened.

And lest there be any doubts about whether this incident actually happened or not, here’s Sharon Tosi Moore, an officer in the United States Army Reserves currently serving in Iraq with a piece in The American Thinker today:

A winning situation all around.

Except, well, except for the tiny little detail that the incident most likely never happened. A week has gone by and no charred bodies were produced. No dramatic funeral parades, with all the attendant wailing and gnashing of teeth, occurred. Not one photo. No grand reprisals. Not even any speeches (and it is hard to imagine Iraqi religious leaders miss an opportunity to make speeches). Just a few remarks from the Iraqi government, largely ignored by the U.S. press, that all reports showed that that particular district had been quiet, and pleading the Iraqi people for calm.

No one thought to question this unusual divergence from normal protocol.

The gullible press swallowed the initial claims whole. Of the major news sources, only TIME Magazine used the word “reportedly” in their headline.

Gullibility is not really the issue. I believe the issue is laziness. And perhaps a lack of passion that enables the reporter to simply go through the motions of being a journalist instead of living up to what his editors and readers expect.

This story is revealing of many things, not the least of which is that our free press is in trouble. Partly from infringements by government but also by lousy stewardship of this precious right being carried out by many the current practitioners of the craft. Not all, of course. There are still some excellent journalists writing for the top publications. But by and large, those whose responsibility it is to inform us, to keep us abreast of what’s going on in the world, are failing and failing badly.

And the hell of it is, no one seems to want to fix the problems much less address them.

Glenn Greenwald has seen fit to “respond” to my post from yesterday in which I asked he and other civil liberties absolutists to “Bite Me” for spending the last two years crying about our “lost freedoms” as a result of the use of the NSA to intercept terrorist phone calls from overseas to their friends in America.

It is truly astounding to watch people incapable of understanding the point that the reason it is wrong and dangerous for the President to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants is because doing so is against the law. Shouldn’t that be a simple enough proposition that every functioning adult ought to be capable of understanding it? It doesn’t mean that everyone has to agree with that proposition—if people want to continue to cling to the theory that the President is unbound by the law concerning matters of national security, obviously they are free to do so.

But there is no excuse for failing to comprehend the objections to the President’s behavior, particularly since the central objection is not all that complicated. To the contrary, it is what we all learn in seventh-grade civics.

One more time: the principal problem with the President’s warrantless eavesdropping is not that he is abusing the secret eavesdropping powers he seized (that is something we do not yet know, because the Congress has not yet investigated that question). Instead, the “problem” is that the President is engaging in the very conduct which the American people, through their Congress almost 30 years ago, made it a felony to engage in, punishable by up to five years in prison—that is, eavesdropping on Americans without judicial oversight.

How many times can you say that it’s impossible to determine the legality of a program you know nothing about? That the technical details, hidden from most of us, were reviewed by the Privacy Board and discovered to be protective of our civil liberties. That in fact, those in Congress who have been briefed on the program have not said one word about it being illegal – including Democrats. Specter and Feingold (and others who mouth off about the program’s legality) have not received the kind of briefing given the intel committees. And apparently, the Privacy Board received an even more substantial briefing than Congress.

Greenwald is, in essence, assuming facts not in evidence. Does he assume that the NSA uses technology and hardware similar to if not exactly the same as domestic law enforcement? Does Greenwald have any idea how that technology is used?

Is Glenn Greenwald a gypsy fortune teller in disguise? Does his “second sight” ability give him insight that the rest of us mere mortals lack?

In short, this hand wringing hysteric is talking through his hat and always has been about the NSA intercept program. And the statements by the Privacy Board (nice job in smearing dedicated public servants Greenwald) would seem to indicate that constitutional protections are carefully observed. (Do you really think Lanny Davis wouldn’t say what he said if he sat on your definition of an “independent” board?)

And thinking he can discredit me or anyone else by referring to me as a “neocon” reveals someone whose extraordinary shallowness is only matched by a breathtaking ignorance of who or what makes a “neocon” – a blindness so endemic on the left that one would think they all came down with a collective case of the stupids and have yet to find a cure for it.

Greenwald has no clue. And trying to spin his way out of trouble by repeating the same, tired and now thoroughly discredited arguments only makes him look like a fool.

UPDATE

The new comment policy is in effect. No insulting me or any other commenter. No obscenity.

Strictly enforced – once I get off the air.

As I was doing my radio show yesterday, I read from an article on the trouble that President Musharaf of Pakistan was causing NATO troops by not making much of an effort to stem the flow of Taliban fighters into Afghanistan. In fact, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri recommended that NATO go ahead and surrender now by making a deal with the Taliban on establishing a coalition government in Kabul and leaving. He also sagely recommended against sending any more troops to bolster the 33,000 troops already serving in that theater.

Leaving aside Musharaf’s perfidious Foreign Minister, the fact is that NATO troops have generally performed brilliantly in Afghanistan. And while the US has far and away the most troops serving in the NATO contingent, I was somewhat surprised to learn that of late, the US has not been doing most of the fighting. In fact, it has been our neighbors to the north who have demonstrated once again that when duty and honor call, the Canadian soldier has always stepped forward, front and center, to be counted as a true friend and ally of the United States.

Despite viewing our northerly neighbors with either a bored indifference or a condescending big brother-little brother attitude, the Canucks seem able to shrug off our beastly treatment of them and when crunch time comes, deliver. This says a lot about the character of Canadians who, after all, are a proud, fiercely independent people, resentful at times of an American culture that threatens to overwhelm them and American tourists who tend to view Canada as a gigantic 51st state. In fact, it is a wonder that Canadians are as welcoming of Americans as they are when we visit. That also says a lot about the Canadian character.

For despite all the jokes about the Canadians taciturnity, I have found them to be a warm, open people, fiercely protective of the great expanse of natural treasures found in their beautiful lakes, rivers, forests, and mountains as well as being practical stewards of the land. It is a balance that we here in the United States should aspire to although, given the current political climate, is probably not in the cards.

As for the Canadian armed forces, I was amazed to learn, for instance, that Canada sent nearly 620,000 men to fight in World War I. At the 2nd Battle of Ypres, the Canadian 1st Division was sent in to hold a bulge in the line directly opposite a German division dug in on a low hill. Following a short but fierce artillery bombardment, the Canadian troops – holding the center of the salient – saw a green mist waft toward them. It was the very first use of poison gas in World War I, a deadly cloud of chlorine gas which was designed to sink to the lowest point on the battlefield; in this case, the trenches of the Canadian 1st Division.

Not equipped with gas masks, the Canucks nevertheless stood their ground. Coughing and spitting, the Canadians beat back the German infantry charge and then launched a counterattack of their own. Of course, such attacks and counterattacks were ultimately self defeating. The area around the small Belgium town of Ypres – “Flanders Fields” – is considered one of the most heavily fertilized places on the planet due to the nearly half million dead from both sides, most of whom disappeared into the mud never to be found and buried.

No one has questioned the toughness of Canadian troops since.

In Afghanistan, the Canadians have distinguished themselves both as warriors and in reconstruction efforts. The Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (KPRT) has a hundred projects either in development or completed. The Canadian government has earmarked over $600 million for reconstruction over the last 5 years, making them the 4th largest contributor to the effort. Needless to say, in order to defeat the Taliban, it will take both the efforts of NATO combat forces and the reconstruction teams.

In combat operations, only the United States has suffered the loss of more men. In the last year alone, 36 Canadians have died (Canada has suffered a total of 44 dead since 2001). This is due to the fact that the Canadians have taken the lead combat role in one of the hotbeds of Taliban activity; Kandahar Province. Specifically, the southern part of the province where the Taliban regularly crosses the border in strength from their bases in Pakistan. Prime Minister Harper has increased troops strength to nearly 2,500 and the government has extended Canadian participation in Afghanistan for another two years.

In July of this year, the Canadians spearheaded an attack on the Taliban stronghold of Panjwaii. Operation Mountain Thrust involve nearly 2,000 Canadians and several hundred of their Afghan allies. It was designed to destroy concentrations of Taliban fighters who had been gathering strength in the area. The Canucks waded in and, after several days of fierce fighting, sent the Taliban flying, scattering their forces.

With the Taliban regrouping in the area in the early fall, the Canadians once again attacked Panjwaii, this time with the help of some Dutch and Americans as well as a crack regiment from the Afghan army. Operation Medusa, commanded by Canadian General David Fraser was a bigger, bloodier action than the July operation with twice as many Taliban having infiltrated across the border. This apparently didn’t faze the Canucks a bit. Aggressively attacking the well dug in Taliban, the Canadians rooted them out, killing more than 200 and once again scattering their forces to the four winds. This was a more costly enterprise with 4 Canadians sacrificing their lives and 50 others wounded (a friendly fire incident involving an American A-10 killed one and wounded 30).

The reason that the Canadians had to return to the scene of their July victory in Panjwaii was because of a lack of NATO forces who could enter a combat zone and risk casualties. There was no way to hold the area and prevent the re-infiltration of the Taliban without the substantial presence of NATO forces, something that simply wasn’t possible. That’s because most NATO nations have put severe restrictions on their troops going into harms way. Called “caveats,” these restrictions have made the Canadian army’s life difficult in Kandahar since operations there began.

This, however, may be changing. NATO ministers meeting in Riga have agreed to lift some of these caveats which should free another 1-2,000 NATO troops for combat duties in the south.

A statement from NATO indicated that the leaders had agreed to remove some of the “caveats” that countries had placed on the use of their troops, though exactly how much will change remained uncertain.

Though Germany, France and some others have maintained restrictions that will largely keep their troops in the relatively calm north, the Netherlands and Romania removed limits on how their troops can be used. Some other countries offered more troops and equipment for the effort, officials said.

During a news conference, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that about 26,000 of the troops in Afghanistan were now “more usable” in combat and noncombat operations and that all member countries had agreed their troops could be called on in a crisis by British Lt. Gen. David Richards, NATO’s Afghanistan commander.

Lately, the Canadians have been involved in the most dangerous reconstruction project in Afghanistan; the building of a road from the Panjwaii district to Kandahar City. Numerous IED’s and landmines not to mention ambushes by Taliban and tribal irregulars have claimed 14 more Canadian lives. The Taliban has begun to target Canadian soldiers believing that they can knock Canada out of the war by turning the Canadian public against the mission.

There is little doubt that the Canadian people are, at best, ambivalent about Canada’s combat role in Afghanistan. Polls show a bare majority wish the government to bring the troops home now. A large and growing peace movement – fueled by a desire not to sully Canada with the perceived sins of Abu Ghraib and Bagram – has recently become more active. But the government of Stephen Harper has remained firm – so far. NDP leader Jack Layton has called on Harper to open “peace negotiations” with the Taliban and to pull Canadian troops back out of harms way. And many in Canada are questioning why their little country – which has suffered 25% of NATO deaths – should give so much while France and Germany give so little:

NATO’s Dutch Secretary-General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, has taken aim at the big countries whose troops are kept from combat by political restrictions.

“We need to better configure our forces in Afghanistan,” he wrote in a German newspaper last week. “That also means removing the limitations individual nations have placed on their troops.”

Pleas from top NATO commanders for more troops or the loosening of tight leashes that keeps most European soldiers from the fighting have fallen largely on deaf ears.

“Only a handful of NATO members are prepared to go to the south and east and to go robustly—mainly the U.S., U.K., Canada, the Netherlands, Romania, Australia and Denmark,” the International Crisis Group concludes in a blunt report published this month.

“Hard questions need to be asked of those such as Germany, Spain, France, Turkey and Italy who are not, and who sometimes appear to put force protection, not mission needs, at the fore.”

A senior Canadian officer is more blunt. “How many battalions does it take to protect Kabul airport?” said Colonel Fred Lewis, the deputy contingent commander.

The French and Germans were not among the countries that lifted their caveats to allow their troops to engage the Taliban (the French have 200 Special Forces operating in the north).

But it doesn’t seem to faze the Canucks. They continue to soldier on, taking the hard jobs that others eschew. It is safe to say that without the Canadian contingent in Afghanistan, the mission there would be in greater danger of failing, given that the US and British troops are already stretched to the limit. Their willingness to take on more than their fair share of the burden of this war should be recognized and applauded by every single American.

So here’s to our neighbors to the north. And the next time you’re knocking back a few, buy yourself a Molson or Labatt and toast the boys who wear the Maple Leaf patch so proudly on their shoulders.

And here’s hoping more Americans begin to realize what a tremendously important job Canadian boys and girls are doing to help Afghanistan resist tyranny and find a way to peace and freedom.

Join me today from noon until 2:00 PM central time for The Rick Moran Show on WAR Radio.

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Today, we’ll look at plenty of news from Iraq, Pakistan, and Lebanon. And what did a board of civil libertarians think when the NSA gave them a full briefing on the NSA intercept program? You and Glenn Greenwald will never guess…

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I have spent much of the last two years on this site railing against the hysterical, exaggerated, and ultimately dishonest charges made by people like Glenn Greenwald and others that the Bush Administration was tearing apart the Constitution and trying to set up some kind of a dictatorship.

The cornerstone of their bilious rantings has always been that the Administration’s NSA intercept program was, on its face, illegal. In fact, the NSA program has been cited as reason number one to impeach the President and no amount of reasoning by those of us who cautioned against jumping to conclusions about a program that we knew so little about deflected these despicable jackanapes from wailing about our “lost freedoms” and comparing Bush to Hitler.

Well pardon my French, but the only thing I have to say to the gaggle of goofs who have spent much of the last two years in formulating some of the most vile, calumnious, and over the top charges regarding the Administration’s cavalier attitude toward our civil liberties is… BITE ME:

After a delay of more than a year, a government board appointed to guard Americans’ privacy and civil liberties during the war on terror has been told the inner workings of the government’s electronic eavesdropping program.

The briefing for the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board had been delayed because President Bush was concerned—after several media leaks—about widening the circle of people who knew exact details of the secret eavesdropping program.

The board, created by Congress and appointed by Bush, focused on other classified work since it was named in spring 2005, but continued to press for a formal briefing by the National Security Agency.

A breakthrough was reached in recent days, and the five members were briefed by senior officials last week.

Board members said that they were impressed by the safeguards the government has built into the NSA’s monitoring of phone calls and computer transmissions, and that they wished the administration could tell the public more about them to ease distrust.

“If the American public, especially civil libertarians like myself, could be more informed about how careful the government is to protect our privacy while still protecting us from attacks, we’d be more reassured,” said Lanny Davis , a former Clinton White House lawyer who is the board’s lone liberal Democrat.

All of that ink spilled. All of that bile vomited forth from people who didn’t know what the hell they were talking about and yet accused the President and other public servants of the most horrible violations of the Constitution. All of that outrage from people less interested in our civil liberties – not to mention our national security – than they were in scoring cheap political points at the expense of a program that not only now has been shown to be well run and sensitive to civil liberties but also vital to protecting the United States from another terrorist attack.

And let us also put to rest perhaps the most ridiculous charge of all; that the President and his people simply didn’t care about the Constitution:

“We found there was a great appreciation inside government, both at the political and career levels, for protections on privacy and civil liberties,” said Raul, author of a book of civil liberties. “In fact, I think the public may have an underappreciation for the degree of seriousness the government is giving these protections.”

Gee. Ya think? Wonder where the public got “an underappreciation for the degree of seriousness the government is giving these protections…?” Couldn’t be from leftist lickspittles like Greenwald et.al. who’ve spent much of the last 5 years trying to convince the American people that Adolf Hitler was in the Oval Office and Nazi gaulieters were staffing the Justice Department, could it?

Just thinking about the smug, self righteous louts who have hindered every single program, every single effort to protect the people of the United States by constantly raising the specter of Hitler and dictatorship makes me sick to my stomach.

I have no doubt they’ll spin this news by pointing out that there are plenty of other examples of Bush/Hitler tearing up the Constitution. But given the fact that no one in the government connected to the NSA program ever thought in their wildest dreams that any media outlet would be irresponsible enough, partisan enough, or stupid enough to reveal its existence, one can logically assume that other programs are equally careful of the Constitution and civil liberties. And this report now places the burden of proof on the civil liberties absolutists to show otherwise.

I’d say “For Shame!” except they have none. Nor do they have a case that the NSA program and its offshoots are anything except as advertised by government; as well designed as possible in order to safeguard the Constitutional protections that all of us – both liberals and conservatives – are vouchsafed as Americans.

UPDATE

Ed Morrissey, as always, puts it more delicately than I – which makes his indictment of the hysteria mongers even more devastating:

The hysteria surrounding this program might finally start receding, as long as these remarks get some significant play. After all, having a former Clinton aide wish he could reveal more about a secret program to reassure people of the good work done by it rather than to torpedo the Bush administration should raise some eyebrows among the paranoid. Former Reagan counsel Alan Raul went even further, telling John Solomon that he believes that the public underestimates the level of concern and dedication for civil liberties in the federal government.

Once again, the public’s support for a tough but necessary program has been reinforced by its careful execution by the NSA. This should not surprise anyone, as even the New York Times acknowledged that they had no information that the agency broke any laws or violated anyone’s civil rights when they broke the story. All they had were “concerns” about the program’s legality from their anonymous tipsters.

The same could be said for every single program that these guttersnipes have been using as a club to make the Administration’s commitment to the law and the Constitution suspect, undermining the public’s confidence in our national leaders during a time of war, and ultimately, giving aid and comfort to the jihadis who know that they can always depend on the New York Times and their allies to give them a heads up about any attempt to thwart their plans using legitimate, constitutional methods.

The Anchoress:

So, once again…sound and fury signifying nothing. And we’ll see the NY Times with a big headline on this assessment on page one, above the fold, right? Brian Williams will lead with this story, right? Maybe at least Jon Stewart will bring it up?

Last I saw, the forecast for hell was hot and humid with no chance of snow…

Finally, the inimitable Mr. McGuire:

Left unanswered – what terrible hold does Karl Rove have over Lanny Davis?

Ask Greenwald. Or maybe David Corn. His tin foil hat is brand new this week…

The Bush Administration in the past has rightly decried the leaking of classified information from intelligence sources whose motives may or may not have been largely partisan in nature. But the deliberate leak yesterday of a classified analysis of Iraqi’s embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley should be seen in the context of statecraft and not necessarily the typical Washington bureaucratic game of “gotchya” – a difference that may be lost on some but is telling nonetheless.

The audience targeted with this leak is extremely small. In fact, it is an audience of one – the Iraqi Prime Minister. The President will meet with Maliki on Wednesday in Jordan and the timing of this leak will not be lost on the PM nor will the words of Hadley, who makes up for a lack of elegance in language with a series of triphammer verbal blows that questions Maliki’s fitness for the job:

The memo presents an unvarnished portrait of Mr. Maliki and notes that he relies for some of his political support on leaders of more extreme Shiite groups. The five-page document, classified secret, is based in part on a one-on-one meeting between Mr. Hadley and Mr. Maliki on Oct. 30.

“His intentions seem good when he talks with Americans, and sensitive reporting suggests he is trying to stand up to the Shia hierarchy and force positive change,” the memo said of the Iraqi leader. “But the reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.”

It has been apparent since June that the situation on the ground was getting beyond Maliki’s control. That’s why in August, CENTCOM proposed the current redeployment of tens of thousands of US troops to Baghdad, a strategy that has not worked, is not working and will not work until Maliki gives the go ahead for the United States army to crush Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Militia and until Maliki’s promises about sending more Iraqi troops to assist the Americans in holding areas cleaned and swept by our forces are realized.

As for al-Sadr, the radical cleric has carved out an independent role for himself and it is becoming clear that he has little interest in cooperating with Maliki in tamping down the violence. Nor does he have any interest in having Shias share power with Sunnis and Kurds – something he has made no secret of from the beginning:

In describing the Oct. 30 meeting between Mr. Hadley and Mr. Maliki, it says: “Maliki reiterated a vision of Shia, Sunni and Kurdish partnership, and in my one-on-one meeting with him, he impressed me as a leader who wanted to be strong but was having difficulty figuring out how to do so.” It said the Iraqi leader’s assurances seemed to have been contradicted by developments on the ground, including the Iraqi government’s approach to the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia known in Arabic as Jaish al-Mahdi and headed by Moktada al-Sadr.

“Reports of nondelivery of services to Sunni areas, intervention by the prime minister’s office to stop military action against Shia targets and to encourage them against Sunni ones, removal of Iraq’s most effective commanders on a sectarian basis and efforts to ensure Shia majorities in all ministries — when combined with the escalation of Jaish al-Mahdi (JAM) killings — all suggest a campaign to consolidate Shia power in Baghdad.”

Needless to say, these actions are 180 degrees in opposition to what the Iraqi government needs to be doing to assure the Sunnis that they will have a place at the table in any Iraqi power sharing arrangement. In effect, Maliki’s actions are fueling the insurgency while he asks more and more of his American allies in helping to snuff it out.

And the aforementioned failure of Maliki to deliver Iraqi troops to the capitol to assist the Americans is just one indication of how tenuous Maliki’s hold on power actually is:

The memo refers to “the current four-brigade gap in Baghdad,” a seeming acknowledgment that there is a substantial shortfall of troops in the Iraqi capital compared with the level needed to provide security there, in part because the Iraqi government has not dispatched all the forces it has promised. An American brigade generally numbers about 3,500 troops, though Iraqi units can be smaller. While Democrats have advocated beginning troop withdrawals as a means of putting pressure on Mr. Maliki, the memo suggests that such tactics may backfire by stirring up opposition against a politically vulnerable leader.

“Pushing Maliki to take these steps without augmenting his capabilities could force him to failure — if the Parliament removes him from office with a majority vote or if action against the Mahdi militia (JAM) causes elements of the Iraqi Security Forces to fracture and leads to major Shia disturbances in southern Iraq,” the memo says.

Not mentioned in the memo is one of the big reasons for that “four-brigade gap:” Iraqi troops refusing to serve in Baghdad by either mutinying against their commanders or going AWOL.

If the Prime Minister cannot even control his own armed forces, how much power does he really have? Couple this weakness with his accommodation of both the Mahdi Militia and the even larger Badr Brigades and it may be time to start asking why we should prop someone up who doesn’t have a leg to stand on in the first place?

Good intentions don’t mean squat. We have heard this empty suit of a Prime Minister talk for more than a year about what needs to be done to curb the insurgency, bring the militias to heel, clean up the rampant corruption in the ministries (where taxpayer monies are being shoveled down a black hole), affect a political settlement that includes a sharing of oil revenues with all parties, and bring the Saddamites who terrorized the Iraqi people for more than a quarter of a century to justice.

He has accomplished none of it. He has barely started most of it. He has, in fact, been an obstacle to achieving many of those goals. He has tried to play both ends against the middle with al-Sadr on one side and the Americans on the other and has satisfied neither and disgusted both. His efforts to reform the Interior Ministry to ferret out the independent death squads and militia members who have infiltrated the Iraqi Police Force have been for naught. And his efforts to unite the country politically have consisted largely of grandiose rhetoric with little in the way of concrete proposals that could be the basis for negotiations with the Sunnis and Kurds.

He gives off no sense of urgency, no realization that the patience of the American people is nearly at an end and that he and his government are in mortal danger of not only becoming irrelevant but also extinct. He continues to try and muddle through. And in the meantime, Iraq bleeds.

But he’s all we’ve got at the moment. So the President will trundle off to Jordan and see if he can impress upon the Iraqi Prime Minister the absolute necessity for him to start acting. The time for pleasantries about uniting Iraq in brotherhood are over. It’s time for the Prime Minister to get on his hind legs and fight: Fight the insurgents. Fight the militias. Fight the crime, the corruption, the sense of utter futility that has infected the population and has caused so many to lose hope.

I am not hopeful that any of Hadley’s prescriptions will help the patient because what he really needs is a spinal transplant. But somebody has to get through to this man or Iraq will continue to devolve until it is a place fit only for gravediggers and gravemakers.

Join me today from noon until 2:00 PM central time for the return of The Rick Moran Show.

We’re still working on getting the second generation software installed and working. When we do, it will open up a whole new set of wonderous possibilities for interaction with you, the listener with me, the host. Instant messaging as well as instant links to articles and websites we’re discussing will become available.

I’ve also figured out how to use my Skype/Hot Recording software to tape interviews. Expect a slew of conversations with important and stimulating personalities over the next few weeks.

Today we’ll summarize what’s been happening in Lebanon. We’ll also look at recent revelations regarding the use of disinformation by the enemy in Iraq and how our media has fallen for it. And is there a civil war in Iraq? I report – you decide.

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Let us for a moment indulge the wildest fantasies of those on the left who want every soldier, sailor, and airman out of Iraq as quickly as transport could be rounded up to bring them home.

Let us further indulge the fantasy by patting our lefty friends on the back and congratulating them on coming up with a war winning strategy.

How’s that? No responsible nation would leave Iraq in the state that it is in now, would they? The consequences would be catastrophic – especially for Iraq’s neighbors.

Wait a minute…hold the phone. Aren’t Iraq’s neighbors Iran and Syria? Of course, Saudi Arabia is also a neighbor as is Turkey. But this is war. Sometimes allies or innocent bystanders have to suffer for the victory to come.

Besides, perhaps giving the Saudis a little taste of what their myopic and dangerous policies toward al-Qaeda has wrought wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all…

To indulge this fantasy, we would have to look at some of the fallout that would be the result of our immediate and precipitous pullout from Iraq.

Certainly the government would collapse and the men with guns would rule. It would be Somalia times ten. Sectarian violence would spiral completely out of control and militias would battle for turf. Millions might flee the country.

Where would they go? Here’s where the pain would be inflicted on Iran and Syria.

Shias would stream toward their co-religionists in Iran as would the Sunnis toward Syria – unless one or both countries were forced to intervene. As it stands now, the Syrians and Iranians will probably help us just enough to stabilize the security situation so that we would leave Iraq. But suppose we left the stabilization and security problems with them?

It would be Iran and Syria not only in a quagmire of their own making but also forced to deal with hundreds of thousands of refugees – unwanted visitors that the Saudis are already preparing for by building a massive wall that will separate the Kingdom from Iraq. And the Saudis wouldn’t remain untouched as they would be forced to watch the Sunni slaughter in Iraq. Such a horrific bloodletting would not sit well with their own population and could force the Kingdom to intervene themselves.

This would all be grossly irresponsible of the United States, of course. But do the Iranians know that? Are the Syrians sure that we’d never do it? Such a scenario hanging over the heads of diplomats during our coming talks with the terror states might make them a little more prone to cooperate.

It will never happen this way – but Iran and Syria would royally deserve to have to pick up the pieces in Iraq after they have done everything possible to destroy civil order and keep the country embroiled in violence.

As a former professional actor, I can always appreciate a good performance when I see it. But the production put on by the six Imams who were dragged off the tarmac at the Minneapolis-St. Paul in handcuffs after, what they claim, was simply praying on board a parked airplane may just take the prize for Best Original Performance by a Put-Upon Minority.

In truth, I was halfway through a piece I called “Making America Look Ridiculous” that incorporated the original reporting of the story which made it appear that stupid, ignorant Americans over-reacted to a bunch of quiet, peaceful Muslims saying their prayers in public.

As it turns out, that isn’t even close to being the real story. In fact, it is more than likely that the entire episode was planned to force the authorities into removing the men from the plane for the sole and exclusive purpose of crying “discrimination” and “profiling” to the media. Even more amazing is that the aftermath of the incident may also have been planned for maximum public relations effect in order to capitalize on this egregious example of Muslim persecution:

Muslim religious leaders removed from a Minneapolis flight last week exhibited behavior associated with a security probe by terrorists and were not merely engaged in prayers, according to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials.

Witnesses said three of the imams were praying loudly in the concourse and repeatedly shouted “Allah” when passengers were called for boarding US Airways Flight 300 to Phoenix.

“I was suspicious by the way they were praying very loud,” the gate agent told the Minneapolis Police Department.

Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks—two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin.

“That would alarm me,” said a federal air marshal who asked to remain anonymous. “They now control all of the entry and exit routes to the plane.”

A pilot from another airline said: “That behavior has been identified as a terrorist probe in the airline industry.”

But the imams who were escorted off the flight in handcuffs say they were merely praying before the 6:30 p.m. flight on Nov. 20, and yesterday led a protest by prayer with other religious leaders at the airline’s ticket counter at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

AJ Strata smelled this stratagem out more than a week ago. The fact is, there are so many discrepancies between what the Imams (and CAIR) are saying what happened on the plane and what passengers, ground personnel, security people, and gate employees are saying that one wonders how the Imams and CAIR thought they could get away with lying through their teeth so brazenly.

According to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials, the imams displayed other suspicious behavior.

Three of the men asked for seat-belt extenders, although two flight attendants told police the men were not oversized. One flight attendant told police she “found this unsettling, as crew knew about the six [passengers] on board and where they were sitting.” Rather than attach the extensions, the men placed the straps and buckles on the cabin floor, the flight attendant said.

The imams said they were not discussing politics and only spoke in English, but witnesses told law enforcement that the men spoke in Arabic and English, criticizing the war in Iraq and President Bush, and talking about al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

The imams who claimed two first-class seats said their tickets were upgraded. The gate agent told police that when the imams asked to be upgraded, they were told no such seats were available. Nevertheless, the two men were seated in first class when removed.

A flight attendant said one of the men made two trips to the rear of the plane to talk to the imam during boarding, and again when the flight was delayed because of their behavior. Aviation officials, including air marshals and pilots, said these actions alone would not warrant a second look, but the combination is suspicious.

“That’s like shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theater. You just can’t do that anymore,” said Robert MacLean, a former air marshal.

“They should have been denied boarding and been investigated,” Mr. MacLean said. “It looks like they are trying to create public sympathy or maybe setting someone up for a lawsuit.”

So either a couple of dozen people who weren’t able to meet in order to get their stories straight on the incident or the six Imams and CAIR are lying.

But why? This quote says it all:

But the imams who were escorted off the flight in handcuffs say they were merely praying before the 6:30 p.m. flight on Nov. 20, and yesterday led a protest by prayer with other religious leaders at the airline’s ticket counter at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, called removing the imams an act of Islamophobia and compared it to racism against blacks.

“It’s a shame that as an African-American and a Muslim I have the double whammy of having to worry about driving while black and flying while Muslim,” Mr. Bray said.

The protesters also called on Congress to pass legislation to outlaw passenger profiling.

Mr. Bray’s colorful characterization aside, he has a point. But not in this context. The fact that so many agree that the imams were being deliberately provocative in order to be booted off the plane could only mean that the “protest” at the ticket counter was a planned event as well, designed to milk the incident with the media for all it was worth.

If the imams were simply praying as they claim, then the actions of the authorities would indeed have to be considered outrageous and ignorant. But this cheap bit of vaudeville by CAIR and their supporters to try and attach “victimhood” status to their religion in order to get Congress to take the dangerous and unnecessary step of banning the “profiling” of Muslims approaches the absurd. TSA authorities already bend over backwards to give everyone from old, grey grannies to middle aged whites like me the same kind of attention given to Muslim men. The fact that CAIR’s co-religionists are much more likely to blow a plane out of the sky than little old me seems to be lost on our Muslim brethren. Is CAIR actually saying that a middle aged white man is as likely to hijack a plane as a male Muslim who acts suspiciously like the 9/11 hijackers?

Ethnic minorities whose motherland is fighting Americans do not fare well in this country during a time of war. Just ask the Japanese. Or the Germans for that matter. To ask people to suspend their vigilance in the name of “fairness” is suicidal. No one has suggested rounding up Muslims and penning them in concentration camps. So it would seem a logical course of action (and simple, common sense) to pay closer attention to those whose ethnicity is the same as those who are trying their hardest to kill us.

Does this mean that other ethnic groups – including white middle aged males – aren’t a danger? Of course not. If you want to shut down the air transportation system in this country, you would view everyone with the same amount of scrutiny as we do Muslim males. That simply isn’t going to happen.

I suspect that if we ever do get to the point where Muslim males are not singled out for scrutiny when boarding an aircraft, civil aviation will die. The American people could care less about the sensibilities of Muslims as it relates to keeping hijackers off of airplanes that they want to fly on. They don’t care to commit suicide in the name of some nebulous kind of political correctness that flies in the face of logic and common sense. And as long as Muslims continue to threaten us, the profiling of Muslim males will continue – and the American people will thank the government for doing it.

Either we are at war with those who use Islam as an excuse to murder us or we are not at war and CAIR is correct. You cannot have it both ways and have a viable air transport industry and an American public willing to fly.

The professional victimologists at CAIR think that they can put on this idiotic production and rally the American people to their cause. They have, as usual, miscalculated badly. And if this Muslim “civil rights” organization spent 1/10 the time it spends on weeping about “Islamaphobia” as it could on denouncing without reservation or qualification the madmen who seek to destroy us, people would probably listen more closely to what they had to say.

UPDATE

Jay at STACLU reports that CAIR is filing a complaint “with the relevant authorities” over the treatment of the imams:

Three of them stood and said their normal evening prayers together on the plane, as 1.7 billion Muslims around the world do every day, Shahin said. He attributed any concerns by passengers or crew to ignorance about Islam.

“I never felt bad in my life like that,” he said. “I never. Six imams. Six leaders in this country. Six scholars in handcuffs. It’s terrible.”

Six actors in search of a play.