The potential for civil war in the Palestinian Territories just took another step forward. Abu Mazen, the President of the PA, is asserting direct control of the security agencies. Previously, some of those agencies were under the control of the Interior Minister and Prime Minister. Those positions will now belong to members of Hamas when a new government is formed. Hamas leaders have also stated their desire to re-orient the duties of the security forces to make them more aligned with the goals of Hamas. That appears to be unacceptable to the vast majority of security force personnel, almost all of whom are members of Fatah. Will Hamas leaders, upon organizing the new government, demand that the President relinquish control of the security forces to them? If they do not, how long before their new policies conflict with the desires of the Fatah security people, and armed conflict begins?

The New York Times does an extensive piece on the reaction within Iran to the policies of President Ahmadinejad. It makes him look pretty good (but, hey, ask any German who lived under the Nazis and he'll likely say that Hitler did some good things, too).

Fred Barnes recommends to President Bush Frank Gaffney's new book. Gaffney has, for a long time, been advocating that we get real about fighting this war. You know, doing radical things like securing our borders and ending our dependence on Arab/Iranian oil.

Here is a long article by LTC (Ret.) Ralph Peters in the Weekly Standard about what he calls the counter-revolution in military affairs. An interesting and provocative piece. I agree with much of what he writes in the piece, and will probably post a more in-depth analysis of his conclusions at a later date.