The Dish

"I sat in the Situation Room in secret meetings for nearly twenty years under five Presidents, and all I can say is that some awfully crazy schemes might well have been approved had everyone present not known and expected hard questions, debate, and criticism from the Hill. And when, on a few occasions, Congress was kept in the dark, and such schemes did proceed, it was nearly always to the lasting regret of the Presidents involved. Working with the Congress was never easy for Presidents, but then, under the Constitution, it wasn’t supposed to be. I saw too many in the White House forget that," – Bob Gates, from his 1996 memoir, "From the Shadows."

(Photo: Brooks Kraft/Corbis for Time.)

A reader wishes I hadn’t:

It is very telling that Goldberg urges his readers and "fellow conservatives" not to read your book. And then proceeds to heap scorn and abuse upon you and the book rather than tackling the provocative issues you are raising. It smacks of a dogmatic mindset rigidly incapable of accepting that his worldview might be deficient or lacking.

Simply put, the "Conservative Politburo" at National Review ordered its lead editor of "Conservative Pravda" to issue a denunciation of your book as being "counter-revolutionary" swill too dangerous for average folk to read lest they be corrupted by its influences. The irony of Goldberg attempting to equate you with being a fundamentalist is particularly rich.

I think that while your fisking of Jonah was quite devastating, you probably would have been better served by just noting that he was telling everyone not to read the book. That alone will be enough to encourage honest conservatives, intellectually curious independents and libertarians, and inquisitive liberals to read your book. Everything else just gave him far more attention than he really deserved for such a patent hatchet job.

That’s what Kristol and Kagan are now favoring. Money concession to the 41 crowd:

As for the Baker commission’s likely recommendation that the United States should engage Syria and Iran in the search for solutions in Iraq, we are skeptical that those countries will want to be helpful. But it is one thing to seek their help while we are losing and withdrawing, when our negotiating position is at its weakest, and quite another to engage in such diplomacy while we increase our force levels and try to improve the security situation. If people are serious about negotiating with the likes of Syria and Iran, they should want our diplomats to go in with as strong a hand as possible.

Maybe that’s the deal they are now aiming for: more troops and more realism. My only worry about this is that it really is too late. As another reader comments:

I think the thing we have not come to terms with is just how atomized and broken Iraq has become. Every plan everyone proposes presupposes that leaders can deliver their communities, ala the Bosnia peace accords. That is true whether you are talking about partition or unification. But it just feels to me like Iraq is in little shards, other than Kurdistan.

It also feels to me, when I see the kind of brazen kidnapping of 150 people in broad daylight, that we have no clue what is going on there, no real intel, because no one can get a bird’s eye view of the place. Everyone is in their own green zone or fox hole or walled garden. In Lebanon, reporters could cross lines and really feel like they had some kind of coherent picture of the battlespace. But I don’t think any party has that in Iraq – not us and not Maliki. It makes one reluctant to propose anything.

I’m torn between these two analyses. But I’m leaning toward an acceptance that Iraq may have to experience an actual civil war before any settlement can really hold. It was suppressed for decades. We had one chance to exert control and unwind the sectarian dynamic peacefully; and we blew it.

Iran’s leaders hang another man for homosexuality. Hundreds attend the public execution.

The Onion reveals the real source of his inner conflict.

"[Sullivan] will be the official voice of conservatism for decades," – Mark Steyn, voicing his deeper fears.

From the Missoulian:

In the state Senate, tied 25-25 between Democrats and Republicans after last week’s elections, Republican Sen. Sam Kitzenberg of Glasgow said Monday he plans to switch parties, giving Democrats a 26-24 majority.

"I’m a moderate, and there is no room left in the Republican Party for moderates," Kitzenberg said. "I’m not leaving the Republican Party; it has basically left me."

South Otago, New Zealand, 11 am.

Kevin Drum presents some interesting and somewhat counter-intuitive data.

Grim but important reading on what to do in Iraq; and what victory could even begin to mean at this point.