So . . . Bill Richardson’s presidential campaign is way too not major for him to afford the best speechwriters, but unlike the other candidates he has some practical experience conducting diplpmacy. He’s managed to come up with this petition that doesn’t involve dropping an “all options are on the table” chest-pounding note into the mix:

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Writing in The Wall Street Journal editorial page, New Republic editor in chief Martin Peretz bashes the “Democrat Party” and also gives us his view of the Iraqi scene:

I think the odds against us are huge. One reason is that Iraq is neither a state that coheres nor a society that coheres. Its civil society, if that is what it is, is not quite a civilized society. The carnage between Shia and Sunni, and the carnage among other religious and ethnic communions, since the end of Ottoman rule have left deep and bloodied breaches in Iraq.

I agree with some of this, in particular that Iraq is neither a state nor a society that coheres. That said, it’s hard not to notice that Peretz keeps claiming in his various writings that Iraqis are uncivilized (recall, e.g., the “rudiments of civilization” incident). Any conclusions to be drawn from this will be left to the reader.

I take it back; James Kirchik has a lot to learn. Jonah Goldberg explains how an absence of high-level Iranian government complicity in the alleged giving of weapons to anti-American groups in Iraq would strengthen the case for aggressive action against Iran.

You’ve probably noticed that McClatchey Newspapers, the artists formerly known as Knight-Ridder, have been doing national security reporting that, despite some very fine efforts by contenders at the prestige papers, tends to make the competition look embarassingly bad by comparison for years now. Well, via Jim Henley here comes an eye-opening blog they’ve set up by the Iraqi journalists working for the McClatchey Baghdad bureau:

I was called from home to be told that a nephew of mine was killed in the explosion in the city center. The explosion went off in a central, much frequented market, so there was no doubt it was targeting civilians. Then they called me to say it may not be him after all because there was no way to identify what was left … only his cell phone in the pants’ pocket.

Now I’m waiting, fearfuly, for confirmation either way.

The problem doesn’t end there.

If it isn’t him, it’s someone’s son anyway. But if it is him … whom are we willing to risk going to the Morgue to receive the remains?? If and when we receive him … where do we burry him?? Almost none who take the path to Abu Ghraib Cemetary return unscathed.

Think about that.