The best news from Iraq is that the moderate Shiite establishment is actively trying to defuse the al Sadr rebellion. Here’s the money graf from Burns:
Mr. Adnan said that if the Americans agreed not to send forces into Najaf, and not to seek the immediate arrest of Mr. Sadr on the pending warrant, which charges him with complicity in the April 2003 murder of a rival cleric, Mr. Sadr would agree to dismantle his militia. The clerics at the meeting included the sons of three of Iraq’s most venerated grand ayatollahs, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is regarded as the country’s most powerful religious figure.
Al Sadr is cornered. Better still, if this showdown forces the other Shiite figures into a more proactive and constructive role – as potential rulers of Iraq – then we will have found people to whom real power can be transferred. I’m still optimistic. Alas, I was giving a talk down here in Mississippi when the president was talking and so cannot write about his appearance or demeanor. I liked what he had to say, however. Better to have made a speech a month ago, taking responsibility for the lack of WMD stockpiles and reminding Americans that we still have a very long slog ahead of us in Iraq. But, unless I missed a truly bad performance, the transcript looks competent to me. Which is all we can expect from Bush in unscripted settings.
MORE ENCOURAGEMENT: Yes, I think John Kerry’s faith in the United Nations is misplaced. But I was struck by how grown-up his Washington Post op-ed was yesterday. Can you imagine him saying anything like that during the primary season? It was at least a relief that the Democrats are not going to use Iraq as a political football in the future quite as egregiously as they have so far. The most reassuring passage: “The president must rally the country around a clear and credible goal. The challenges are significant and the costs are high. But the stakes are too great to lose the support of the American people.” He sees why we cannot cut and run. What he doesn’t see, I fear, is the scope of the enemy represented in Iraq and looming in neighboring countries. The problem now, as Michael Ledeen has rightly insisted, is that you cannot deal with Iraq alone. Iran, in particular, is eager to intervene – and is meddling to prevent representative government from coming about in Iraq. We cannot challenge every regime at once, of course, but we do need to keep in mind that the conflict is regional, that other terror-masters are involved, and that stabilizing Iraq is the beginning, not the end, of a real strategy to roll back Islamist terror. I’m not sure that the president has fully embraced this analysis. But I am sure that Kerry hasn’t.
AND MORE: A heartening story of American Kurds thanking returning U.S. Soldiers. I’m also encouraged by the relatively mature way in which the West has responded to the hideous hostage-taking by various extremists in Iraq. This time, we seem to have taken this appalling tactic in stride and refused to accede to it in any way. Kudos to the Japanese in particular. I’m not saying, of course, that we shouldn’t be mortified by the cost to human life – and the families and friends of the captured. But I am saying that being able to withstand this attempted blackmail – and not succumb to media hype – will prevent further such kidnappings in the future. Maybe, in fact, al Jazeera has unwittingly helped us here. By broadcasting so much obvious propaganda on a daily basis, we are now inured to it, unshocked. Which means they lose.
The Dish 