A bokay of opinion from Townhall.com:

• Dinesh D’Souza writes about Jimmy Carter in “Giving radical Islam its start” in response to a recent appearance by the former president:
  

  Recently Jimmy Carter was on television, denouncing President Bush’s policies in Iraq. I find this highly ironic, because Jimmy Carter and his liberal advisers helped the Ayatollah Khomeini to come to power in Iran a quarter of a century ago. Thus they gave radical Islam control of its first major state. How this happened is worth recalling, because from Carter’s failure there’s a valuable lesson to be learned in Iraq.

  I think this is mildly misleading. Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini is the first Shi’ite Islamist state. The first major state to fall under the sway of radical Sunni Islamists is Saudi Arabia. Mr. D’Souza’s analysis is hampered by not keeping the two threads of Islam distinct.

• Paul Greenberg looks at changing strategy (and generals) in Iraq through the prism of the Army’s newly published counter-insurgency manual. General Petraeus, now heading the military effort in Iraq, was a major force behind its publication. Mr. Greenberg notes that the manual emphasizes the importance of domestic support:

  Militarily, the new strategy may work, but only if given time, patience and support. But what about politically? None of the lessons from this new manual will avail if the war isn’t won on the decisive front in any such conflict: the home front. That is where another war was lost, the one in Vietnam.

  In the long shadow of that defeat, it became easy to forget that the now defunct Republic of Vietnam was holding its own, thanks to American air and logistical support, until Congress pulled the props out from under the Vietnamese. The same impulse can be seen in today’s demands that American troops be withdrawn from Iraq, or at least not reinforced.

  To quote General Petraeus’ manual again, our enemy will “try to exhaust U.S. national will, aiming to win by undermining and outlasting public support.”

  Quite right. The assorted weaselly resolutions in the Senate should be blocked using every available means.

• Michael Barone, always worth listening to, views the Senate resolutions with disapproval as well:
  

  So the upshot of the resolution is that we should keep doing for some undetermined period of time pretty much what we have been doing, though it hasn’t been working, and we should not do the different things that Petraeus thinks have a chance — he’s not guaranteeing success — of working.

  What the resolution tells us is that most members of Congress, echoing what they think is the view of most voters, yearn to return to the holiday from history that we thought we were enjoying between the fall of the Berlin Wall and Sept. 11, 2001. And that they have no idea at all of how to get there.

  The trick is to yell loud enough to be heard through the din of the Beltway Echo Chamber.

And this from Patrick Ruffini on YouTube: George Will on Rudy Giuliani. (Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds at InstaPundit.)

Now back to work…

From the perception of men and the education and nurturing of boys, to the blatant power grab that the UN is trying to accomplish over the internet, this article is well thought and articulate.

H/t: Instapundit

Instapundit has extended his list of charities for hurricane relief.

I heard a report on Fox News about twenty minutes ago (5 PM Central) that Senator Rick Santorum claims coalition investigators in Iraq found chemical weapons — artillery shells filled with a chemical agent (perhaps sarin nerve agent). The Fox report said Santorum had fought with the Pentagon and White House to get the information declassified. I’d like to see Santorum put his evidence up on the web. Michelle Malkin and her team at Hot Air already had a post up on the story– Hot Air’s post says the artillery shells contained either “degraded mustard” or sarin. I gather the stocks are 1991 (Desert Storm-era) weapons (in other words, left over weapons). I’m not sure that means Saddam had an active chemical weapons program but if this report proves to be true chemical weapons stock would be a violation of UNSCR 687.  Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Captains Quarters has commentary. Santorum must provide more details and put the declassified documents up on the Web. Fox is replaying Rep Pete Hoekstra– he made the announcement with Senator Santorum. Fox’s Brit Hume says the declassified documents say that since 2003 coalition forces have found 500 weapons with degraded mustard or sarin nerve gas.  Fred Barnes said that they are pre-1991 weapons.

Barnes noted Saddam’s chemical weapons program could have been cranked up quickly. That’s correct. Saddam played games with UN inspectors and was playing possum with his nuclear and chemical programs. This is not a large trove of weapons. Artillery rounds are tactical weapons–but nerve gas is still nerve gas and it puzzles me as to why this information took so long to release.

Saddam used WMD and once the Desert Storm sanctions were lifted I believe he intended to reconstitute his programs. To believe otherwise about Saddam is to put you in league with goofs like Michael Moore and George Galloway.  

UPDATE 2: If this pans out the categorical statements that “Iraq did not have Weapons of Mass Destruction” will be political millstones and albatrosses. I suspect KosKidz and the like will note observations like mine that 500 shells is not a large stockpile. It’s not, but that’s consolation only for the most cynical of spinners and superficial of reporters.  I suspect one conspiracy theory we’ll hear is that the shells were planted by the CIA or Pentagon– how long before that crops up?

When it comes to WMD, intent to acquire and use matters. UNSCR 687 and subsequent resolutions gave Saddam very specific guidance and requirements. He violated them in spirit and in fact (in 2003 post-invasion investigators found a handful of modified SCUD missiles violating the requirements).

UPDATE 3: A commenter notes a “wait a minute” from Rawstory. This is why Santorum must put his evidence up on the Web. His claims require evidence. (Thanks for the comment and link.)

UPDATE 4: Michael Ledeen takes me to task:

Austin, if you will read the floor statements by Hoekstra and Santorum you will see that they have read a classified file, of which DNI (Negroponte) declassified a few snippets. Both elected officials said several times that they were very unhappy at the miserly declassification, and they will fight for it all. Your legitimate request for “more information†has to be directed at Negroponte, not at Santorum and Hoekstra.

 

UPDATE 5:Here’s the document from Negroponte. He needs to release more– and provide more details. (See Michael Ledeen’s comment above.) The administration needs to replace its tin media ear and get off its dense duff. 500 shells is small and likely Iran-Iraq or Desert Storm leftovers– but sarin is sarin.

For readers new to this site–In my well-documented view Saddam had to go because (1) our presence in Saudi Arabia was an Al Qaeda recruiting tool; which is intimately tied to (2) our 12 year war against Saddam had to end with victory, if UN resolutions were to have any substance (and his sanctions evading routines, including Oil For Food, were working); (3) tyrannies are the grounds that breed terrorists, and that is especially true in the Middle East; (4) rogue states want WMD– they are the most-likely supplier of WMD to a terror organization, and post-9/11 we had to show tyrants we mean it about stopping WMD proliferation; (5) Iraq, with its water, source of capital (oil), and comparatively well educated and motivated populace is the prime place to affect democratic change in the politically dysfunctional Middle East.

…..where your opinion counts! The article about the above includes a blog map, description and refers to DailyKos, Boingboing and  Michelle Malkin as leaders in Blogworld.  Dave Lucas provides explanations that “…In the blogosphere, the biggest audiences - go to a small, elite few. Most bloggers toil in total obscurity…” “…It’s the same thing you see in economies: the rich-get-richer problem…” .. and …“The top bloggers have become, in some cases the pets, and in some cases the tormentors of, the writers in the front rank”. 

I found the last point very interesting, as since the likes of DailyKos, Boingboing,  Michelle Malkin, Xiaxue, The Huffington Post, Crooks and Liars, Instapundit, Hot Air, Americablog, Jihad Watch, Captain’s Quarters, Go Fug Yourself, Iain Dale’s Diary, Tim Worstall, Girl with a one track mind, Meta Filter and Eschaton are considered my “pets”, then I command this assortment of good and bad bloggers (you know which you are), if you’re not already doing so, to promote the fatwa, speak against gun crime, fight racism and Islamophobia, call for the end of global poverty, fight to protect the victims in Sudan, condemn the Iraq war, defend the Palestinian causes, denounce the Israeli/Zionist crimes and criticise the disasterous Israeli policy in Palestine. 

Do not think this is as strange as it first appears.  Without ‘poor’ bloggers and enthusiastic commenter’s there would be no ‘rich’ blogs and the top bloggers therefore lose their popularity and rank.  If our views and interests can be represented through them via request or by compulsion, then let us control our blogosphere and ensure that they do so.  Rather then let the blog elite mimic the concept of capitalism and control we the Proletariat, let us instead control the Bourgeoisie!