Alastair Mackay has a post-publication peer review of the Lancet study on excess Iraqi civilian deaths from last fall.

The US has apparently decided to buttress what should be a natural ally, if they can get all of the nutty socialism out of their system.

It’s looking like the recent blow against the terrorist camp in Iraq wasn’t as big as originally reported.

In the Netherlands:

Wilders said: “The people who threaten us are walking around free and we are the captives.”

…The wife of an Islamist militant who is in police custody told a local newspaper that Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim, would be slain by Muslim women. “The sisters are patient,” the woman said. They will wait, “even if it takes 10 years.”

The wasp of Islamic totalitarianism has planted its eggs into the receptive body of Europe, and they are starting to hatch.

…for those looking for bad news in Iraq. But good news for everyone else.

I’m sure that the Lancet will add this to the count of all the “innocent Iraqis” killed because we removed Saddam:

U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a suspected guerrilla training camp and killed 85 fighters, the single biggest one-day death toll for militants in months and the latest in a series of blows to the insurgency, Iraqi officials said Wednesday.

“Among the dead are Arab and foreign fighters, including Sudanese, Algerians and Moroccans, as well as other nationalities,” Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim told Reuters.

Isn’t that a shame? And they didn’t even get to murder children before they died. Maybe they’ll get their virgins anyway.

If they can keep things up at this pace, I suspect that they will be killing them faster than new ones are recruited, because news like this makes recruiting a lot harder.

Here’s an interesting interview of the incoming Iraqi Prime Minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, by Der Spiegel:

SPIEGEL: The Sunnis, the second-largest ethnic group in Iraq, were in control of the country until recently, but now they feel forced into a secondary role by the Shiite majority. Many sympathize with the terrorists. A few Sunni religious leaders have even issued fatwas that justify the killing of occupation forces and alleged collaborators.

Jaafari: This is why I am doing everything within my power to convince our Sunni brothers to join us in developing the new constitution.

SPIEGEL: How successful have you been? 80 percent of Sunnis boycotted the elections.

Jaafari: My efforts have certainly been fruitful. More and more Sunni politicians, even religious dignitaries, are now willing to participate in developing our constitution. We want every Iraqi to support the new constitution.

SPIEGEL: What will the constitution look like? Do you envision an Iranian-style Islamic republic, or could Saudi Arabia be a model?

Jaafari: Iraq should become an Islamic state, but without Iran or Saudi Arabia as its godfather. Islam, not unlike Christianity, has many different faces.

SPIEGEL: Will you introduce sharia?

Jaafari: Yes, but only as one of several sources of jurisprudence. That is only natural in a country that is populated mainly by Muslims.

SPIEGEL: Will Christians, for example, be given religious freedoms?

Jaafari: Everyone will have the same rights, even the members of our many smaller religious communities.

SPIEGEL: How do you plan to deal with the many Iraqis who are in favor of a secular state and the separation of religion and the state?

Jaafari: Iraqis are tolerant by nature. No one should be concerned about losing his freedom of expression. I will fight to ensure that every citizen is able to express his opinion, even if I don’t agree with it.

SPIEGEL: Will women be required to wear veils in the new Iraq?

Jaafari: Never. They will be free to choose for themselves.

Read the whole thing. He sounds like a savvy politician. And the civil war, and Islamic Republic so long predicted (and probably, on the part of many, fervently desired) by war opponents seems to continue to be delayed in arriving. Of course, that’s true for almost all of their dire predictions.

Amir Tehari reviews the bidding two years after the toppling of Saddam’s brutal regime.

The most ardent advocates of the anti-war case are remnants of the supposedly revolutionary left that, in almost every other case, regard the law as nothing but a bourgeois prop to keep the masses in check. The spectacle of Leninists, Trotskyistes and Maoists beating their chests about the legality of toppling a tyrant is surely a treat for all students of politics.

Indeed.

At least by Saddam.

It’s the seventeenth anniversary of Halabja.

If some had had their way, the monster who did this would still be in power. Instead, the Iraqi people just had their first free election in decades, and peace and democracy is on the march throughout the region.

The TSA continues to drag its feet in letting airline pilots arm themselves.

Strategy Page says that the “insurgents” are running out of money.