While the investigation of the incident in Haditha continues, our old friend Zarqawi is exhorting Sunnis to make war against the Shiites. Our troops are under tremendous stress trying to discriminate between insurgents and civilians, between the Iraqis they can trust and the Iraqis they cannot, all the while being picked off by snipers and blown up by IEDs. They are doing a tremendous job under very difficult circumstances, oftentimes despite the failures of their leaders. I wonder, though, if ordinary Iraqis truly appreciate what our troops are trying to accomplish? In order to better secure the U.S., they are trying to create a space for the Iraqis to effect a political transformation of their country, from a violent, brutal land that can only be governed by bloodthirsty tyrants, to a true democratic republic. The process is an ugly one, leading to mistaken bombings of homes, mistreatment of prisoners, and the killing of innocent civilians, sometimes by mistake, perhaps sometimes deliberately by a few soldiers or marines who have lost their moral bearings under the stress of combat. But without this process, without the presence of American troops, what would Iraq look like? One need only look to Lebanon in the 1980s or Somalia today, except on a much larger and more violent scale. In the end, I hope that the leaders of the new Iraqi government understand this fact. If they do, then our soldiers will have at least one set of Iraqis they can trust. Still, can they trust their own leadership and the will of the people back home? That is an open question.

Will Haditha effect the mid-term elections? Is it really all that different from the history of other conflicts? Is the handwringing over Haditha distracting us from the real prize?

Iranian leaders have not, as yet, accepted the offer of negotiations from the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China over their nuclear program. This is a real test of the rationality of the men who lead that country and, if they refuse to negotiate, a real test of the resolve of the major powers when dealing with nuclear proliferation.

If you have not read it yet, this Peggy Noonan piece is stirring up some reaction, as she predicts a growing momentum for the creation of a true, viable third party. I will have some more thoughts on that later.