Michael Totten has an interesting discussion with some Iraqis:

According to the conventional narrative, Al Qaeda was rejected by Iraqis because they murdered Iraqis. They were far more vicious and hateful than the Americans they vowed to expel. The narrative is correct, as far as it goes, but Al Qaeda is detested for more than mere thuggery. Other armed groups have been able to maintain at least some popularity even though they also murder Iraqis. None of the others, though, violent though they may be, are so thoroughly totalitarian, so alien to the traditions of Iraqi culture, and so hostile to its centuries-old social fabric. Al Qaeda in Iraq tears at Iraq

Andrew Olmsted has been killed in Iraq, in a cause that he believed in dearly (not necessarily Iraq per se, as he explains posthumously, but in simply serving his country). My most profound condolences to family and friends.

…in Baghdad.

Harry and Nancy are (no doubt) very disappointed.

Happy New Year to every one else, who isn’t unhappy to see happiness in Iraq.

In his last column of 2007, Mark Steyn has thoughts on what is perhaps currently the biggest security problem in the world.

…the

From Michael Barone.

From Michael Barone.

From Michael Barone.

This isn’t good news. Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated by a suicide bomber. I’m a little surprised that Musharraf himself has lasted this long, but I imagine he’s pretty fanatical about security. I also hope that he has the bombs under control.

Pakistan is probably the most intractable problem we have right now, and in many ways is at the heart of the war. And the notion that “non-interventionalism” will make it go away is hopeless naive.

[Update a few minutes later]

Some thoughts from Michael Ledeen:

The freedom of women in the world

The IDF is being criticized because it doesn’t rape enough women:

The next sentence delineates the particular goals that are realized in this manner: “In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it can be seen that the lack of military rape merely strengthens the ethnic boundaries and clarifies the inter-ethnic differences – just as organized military rape would have done.”

The paper further theorizes that Arab women in Judea and Samaria are not raped by IDF soldiers because the women are de-humanized in the soldiers’ eyes.

No, it couldn’t possibly be that that the Israeli government (like Jews everywhere) abhors rape, and that Israeli soldiers are discouraged from raping women, and punished when they do.

Either way, in the minds of the anti-semites in academia, they can’t win.

[Update before bed]

I continue to be boggled by this. Refusing to rape women? Just how evil can you get?

[Thursday morning update]

Jeez… What is it about the self-hating Israeli left and its rape fantasies?

Contacted by the Jewish Week, Laundau confirmed the statements, but said his views had been delivered

For Christmas:

…al-Qaeda has been rooted out of Doura and the hundreds of Christian families who left the area are returning.

On Christmas Day they will congregate in the battle-scarred St Mary’s Church, where part of the crucifix on its tower is still missing after being shot at.

“We closed the church two years ago because of all the trouble,” said the priest, Father Younadim Shamoon, 45, who has decorated its bullet-cratered walls with modest fairy lights.

“But many people are coming back after word got around that the local Muslim people were welcoming us again. We thank God and hope that we can live together again as brothers.”

No thanks to Harry Reid.