But here's what I've been reading in between edits:
- Impending success in Falljuah but whack-a-mole in Iraq as a whole, and now it's with extra Kurds (to get the insurgents out of the way). Let's hope they succeed without setting off a wave of inter-ethnic violence. In the meantime, maybe something should be done about angry, unemployed former Mukhabarat officials and embittered Sadr city residents.
- Kevin Sites has photos of American troops in Fallujah, and Alaa is doing some good analytical blogging of the situation.
- Dueling fatwas over whether Iraqi Shi'ites should partipate in the January elections.
- Today's chaotic burial of Yasser Arafat doesn't seem like an auspicious start for Abu Mazen. Jonathan Edelstein has a thoughtful post-mortem assessment of the man who betrayed the cause of which he was a living symbol. Greg Djerejian thinks the Bush administration is serious about engaging in a revived Israeli-Palestinian peace process, but Laura Rozen suspects otherwise, perhaps with good reason. Brent Scowcroft sees an opening for peace. Of course, the last time he gave advice, Bush didn't listen. Has he learned his lesson?
- Matt Yglesias makes a good point that ties in with what I think we're trying to do with Liberals Against Terrorism: it isn't so much that Democrats don't have national security experts, but that the general Democratic operative community doesn't pay much attention to them.
Finally, happy Diwali to our many
The first afoe European weblog awards