The Dish

"Frankly, as he has over the past few weeks, Bush looked like a man who is in way over his head, which he is. The man who got the country into this hole, and whose neglect and incompetence dug us deeper into into it, looks like a man who would like nothing more than to get back to Crawford. We’d all be better off if he would," – George Conway, NRO.

Does a consulate count? Maybe it does.

A longtime reader looks on the bright side:

For all the problems, Iraq (and its neighbors) are still better off without Saddam. The danger of a Sunni Jihadi Talibanesqe stronghold are exaggerated, if only by the stark demographics. Sunni Arabs are only 15-20% of the country. If real civil war and ethnic cleansing breaks out, the Sunni Arabs are doomed. Saudis and other Arab countries getting involved in a regional war with Iran?  Other than some financial support and a few thousand lunatic Jihadis, it is not very likely. They will sell out the Saddam loyalists even quicker than they did the Palestinians. Iran need not get overtly involved anyway – Shia forces in Iraq can force their will on the Sunnis without much help.

Pacification of Baghdad makes sense, but it may be too late. The only way it will work if we have the means to take on the Mahdi army and the Shia extremists with Maliki’s backing and force the government to be more open to the Sunnis (something many of us doubt).

We should continue to support Kurdistan and Anbar. Many Sunnis realize that the Shias are a threat, but the Jihadis are no real protection. Interesting that anywhere the radical Muslims gain power they quickly alienate the locals. They are just religious versions of Saddam, holding power by use of terror. We can exploit that in Anbar (our presence keeps the Shias at bay and also gives us opportunity to kill foreign troublemakers). Kurdistan is mostly a success (thanks to them) – all we need to do is give them cover from the Turks.

Hey, here’s hoping.

(Photo of Moqtada al-Sadr by Ali Jarekji/Reuters.)

The Daily Standard provides a helpful profile of an impressive soldier.

Mark Blumenthal does the math. Bottom line:

Both polls show similarly strong polarization, with most Republicans favoring a troop surge, and most independents and Democrats in opposition.

More here.

Beliefnet highlights the regular prayer of Father Mychal Judge, who died in the World Trade Center, ministering to his flock. Money quote:

Lord, take me where You want me to go;
Let me meet who You want me to meet;
Tell me what You want me to say, and
Keep me out of Your way.

But God wanted Mychal in His way, at the appointed hour.

A reader cites the correct reference:

The term "Author of Liberty" comes from the fourth stanza of Samuel Smith’s hymn "America," which is sung to the tune of "Good Save the Queen."

Here’s the verse:

Our fathers’ God, to thee,
Author of liberty, to thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by thy might, great God, our King.

I like the indirectness of the invocation of the deity. Less is sometimes more.

A telling extract from Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol," where Scrooge meets the angel who is the Spirit of Christmas Present. They argue over the morality and legality of closing stores and pubs on Sunday, a cause dear to Christianists in Victorian England:

"Spirit," said Scrooge, after a moment’s thought, "I wonder you, of all the beings in the many worlds about us, should desire to cramp these people’s opportunities of innocent enjoyment."

"I!" cried the Spirit.

"You would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day, often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all," said Scrooge. "Wouldn’t you?"

"I!" cried the Spirit.

"You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day," said Scrooge. "And it comes to the same thing."

"I seek!" exclaimed the Spirit.

"Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your name, or at least in that of your family," said Scrooge.

"There are some upon this earth of yours," returned the Spirit, "who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us."

(Photo: a scene from the 1935 movie, Scrooge, featuring the Spirit of Christmas Present.)

The last European country that retains a Catholic church with real life, Poland, now has to cope with its own priest abuse scandal. Except the abuse this time was the trust of ordinary Poles whom some priests spied and informed on for Communist authorities. Rocco has an update.

This site proves that bears know how not to take themselves seriously. This YouTube has its charms.