I missed this on Sunday, but here is an excellent account by John Burns in the NYT about the last hours of Saddam Hussein.

A U.S. AC-130 gunship has shot up some suspected al Qaeda guys in Somalia. I hope the intelligence was reliable, and our guys didn't end up shooting up a bunch of farmers and their livestock.

Here is an excellent article published by the AEI about the situation in Iraq. If the authors are to be believed, and their arguments seem very reasonable to me, then a short-term surge of 20,000 troops is not going to do the trick in Baghdad.

Rich Lowry calls on the Democrats to speak plainly and tell the American people what they really believe, which is that the war is lost. Then we can have a real debate about whether or not the majority of Americans accept that proposition and are willing to accept the consequences. I would not recommend holding your breath while waiting for the Democratic leadership to speak that plainly.

President Bush is trying to rally support among Republicans on Capitol Hill for his surge proposal, which he will make in a speech to the American people on Wednesday night. Apparently, he is being met by some skepticism.

I will watch the speech with interest, but I will especially watch to see the reaction from ordinary Americans. As I have written many times, the American people do not like and will not long support limited wars with indistinct goals. If the President's plan is limited to 20,000 troops and will not involve taking on the Shiite militias, then it will certainly not succeed in winning the war. It won't take long for the American people to figure that out, so any short-term bump in support for the war will quickly recede. If this is just an effort to kick the can down the road into the next Administration, then history will judge George W. Bush even more harshly than previously imagined.