AND WE WANT THESE GUYS IN IRAQ?

Twelve French soldiers on peacekeeping duties in Ivory Coast have been arrested in connection with a bank theft there last week.
The troops had been assigned to protect a branch of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) and were charged with stealing $120,000 (100,000 euros).

French military spokesman Colonel Henry Aussavy said the accused soldiers were being sent home to face French justice.

More than 4,000 French troops are serving alongside UN peacekeepers.

Sigh.

WHERE NEXT FOR THE BLOGOSPHERE? Pejman Yousefzadeh has some thoughts.

ANOTHER SUCCESS FOR DIPLOMACY?

Syria’s ambassador to Washington said yesterday his country’s forces in Lebanon will begin a major redeployment toward their own border this morning.

The diplomat also said Syrian and U.S. troops will partake in joint security operations along the Syrian-Iraqi border, although State Department officials contradicted that claim.

“This is official,” said Imad Mustapha, Syria’s ambassador to Washington, speaking by telephone from the Syrian capital. “Tuesday morning there will be a major redeployment of Syrian forces in Lebanon toward the border.” . . .

A senior State Department official disputed the ambassador’s statement last night.

“We are looking for Syria to take certain action to protect the border. That action has not been taken yet. We’ll be working to improve Syria’s performance,” the official said. “At this point, that does not include joint actions with American troops.”

Hmm. Stay tuned.

TOM MAGUIRE is checking Joe Wilson’s travel schedule.

MICKEY KAUS IS ON FIRE, with posts on everything from Ra^therGate to polling.

KERRY ON GUNS, IN OUTDOOR LIFE:

OL: Are you a gun owner? If so, what is your favorite gun?

Kerry: My favorite gun is the M-16 that saved my life and that of my crew in Vietnam. I don’t own one of those now, but one of my reminders of my service is a Communist Chinese assault rifle.

Reader Kevin O’Kelley has some questions:

1. How did you acquire this assault rifle? Is it an illegally imported, untraceable souvenir?

2. Is it a fully-automatic weapon or a semi-automatic?

3. Where is the gun now? Is it legal for it to be kept there?

4. How can you support a law that forbids other people owning a weapon that you already own?

Good questions, all.

Inquiring minds want to know.

UPDATE: Yeah, yeah, inquiring minds also want to know if there’s any question — any freaking question at all — that Kerry can answer without mentioning Vietnam.

THE BELMONT CLUB looks at the dark side of American involvement in Iraq:

I cast about in vain for some way to estimate whether the level of corruption in the Iraqi government, which is a proxy for efficiency and just governance, was increasing or decreasing. It is the one area for which I truly fear, not in the least because few Americans have any idea what a distorting gravitational force normal levels of American prosperity and largesse have in a Third World country. The sheer capability of America can create a dependency even in richer societies. One wonders whether the new Iraqi Army will have any concept of operations constrained by their true resources, without implicitly assuming American support. Sixty years of America in NATO have arguably weakened indigenous military capability in a continent which once dominated the world. Sometimes a quagmire is when you are too damned good.

Perhaps this is how we will, ultimately, convert the whole world into a bunch of diplo-speaking social-welfare pacifists, one quagmire at a time. . . .

But there’s an upside. Evan Coyne Maloney parses John Kerry’s positions on Iraq and concludes:

But if we can’t decipher Kerry’s plans, neither can al Qaeda. Therein may lie the true strategic brilliance of John Kerry: after four years of Kerry in the White House, Osama bin Laden will be so damn confused, he just might forget who his enemy is.

Now there’s a campaign slogan.

Arthur Chrenkoff is less amused.

And finally, Mongai looks at the Japanese Self-Defense Forces in Iraq, with links to reports and photos.

JEFF JARVIS: “It’s bigger than Dan Rather. It’s bigger than CBS. It’s about journalism and Big Media and their relationship with the citizenry and democracy. It’s about sharing authority with the people.”

That’s what’s got ’em scared.

UPDATE: Read this, too.

CROSSING OVER INTO BIG MEDIA, the Power Line guys have written this piece on Kerry in Vietnam and Cambodia, and this piece on Kerry’s anti-war activism. And here’s another piece on the subject by Mack Owens.

MAPES TO BURKETT TO LOCKHART? Power Line wonders what’s going on.

Meanwhile there’s this new development:

FORT WORTH, Texas – (KRT) – The son of a late commander in the Texas Air National Guard said Monday that CBS owes his family an apology for airing documents – now believed to be false – that purportedly were of his father criticizing President Bush’s service as a young man in the Guard. . . .

Gary Killian, a Houston businessman who once served in the Guard with his father, said he initially questioned the validity of parts of the memos, then later became convinced they were all fakes.

Killian said he is angry with both CBS and Burkett.

“Do I take it personally? Yes,” he said, adding: “I think, first of all, CBS and Dan Rather owe my deceased father and my family an apology.”

For starters.

UPDATE: Hugh Hewitt:

Wow. A senior Kerry aide phoning the forgery-passer at the request of CBS? CBS is advising the Kerry campaign? And the Kerry campaign is following the advice? Fire them all.

My guess is that Kerry won’t be meeting with reporters tomorrow either.

Somebody should ask him about all this.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More on CBS/Kerry Campaign collusion here.

Shouldn’t CBS just register as a 527 and have done with it?

EUGENE VOLOKH is guestblogging over at GlennReynolds.com.

Meanwhile, on his own blog, he’s offering religious instruction to Jimmy Swaggart.

I’M WATCHING KEITH OLBERMANN ON MSNBC talking about blogs being “infiltrated.” Boy is he clueless and behind the times. First, Hugh Hewitt already wrote about this stuff in the Weekly Standard months ago. Second, it’s rather convenient that this issue only comes up elsewhere now, when Big Media’s looking bad and is obviously in bed with a campaign, rather than back when David Brock’s operation was busy hiring lefty bloggers. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that — but there is something wrong with not noticing it while making a big deal about a chatboard post on FreeRepublic that, shockingly, comes from a Republican.)

Olbermann is really an embarrassment here — not least because he seems to think that you need to have some sort of specialized insider information to notice something as unbelievably obvious as the CBS document forgery. Maybe if you’re Olbermann, you do. . . .

UPDATE: Ernest Miller has related thoughts.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s someone else who was watching.

And Patterico has thoughts on transparency and reciprocity.

MORE: Reader Wayne Seibert emails: “Why should you care about Olbermann – you have 3x as many viewers as he does.” Heh.

And a few readers think I’m “brave” to criticize MSNBC when I write for them. If you knew how little they pay me, you’d think less of my courage — but in fact, I made clear up-front that signing up with them wasn’t going to change my blogging, and they had no problem with that.

DONALD SENSING is on hiatus. He’ll be missed.

In what I’m sure is a coincidence, so is Belle de Jour.

PLAME UPDATE: Roger Simon is asking “what did Joe Wilson know, and when did he know it?”

You know, I think I’m posting more on the Plame story these days than some of the bloggers who used to chide me for not paying enough attention to it.

UPDATE: Say, I don’t think I linked this story before, though, regarding the much-maligned Scooter Libby: “Fitzgerald had focused on Libby as the possible leaker of Plame’s name and identity, but the new subpoenas to Time suggest he may be rethinking that theory. Four reporters have now testified at Libby’s urging that he did not disclose Plame’s name or identity to them. Pincus is one of those who answered questions about Libby, he said in his statement. Both he and Cooper said they did so with Libby’s approval, and both said that their conversations with Libby did not touch on the identity of Wilson’s wife.”

ROBERT NOVAK writes that the Bush Administration plans to cut-and-run from Iraq after the election.

I’m deeply skeptical, in part because of his shaky sourcing [At least he’s not claiming newly-discovered documents from Texas! — Ed.] but moreso because it doesn’t make much sense. We heard the same kind of cut-and-run discussion all through last year, centering around the transfer of sovereignty, and it didn’t happen then. From what I can tell (including a look at some of the units, including my secretary’s, that are on their way there now), it seems like we’re building up offensive capability, not getting ready to leave.

Could this be a head-fake? An effort to scare the Sunnis into thinking we’ll take a hands-off position while Shias and Kurds massacre them? Dirty intra-Administration politics? Or just a lousy story? Yes. Could it be true? I suppose so — I don’t get weekly memos from Condi spelling out what the plans are, and even if I did, I suppose those could be wrong, or dishonest — but I don’t see Bush having much of a second term if he cuts and runs in Iraq. In fact, I think that would be, for all practical matters, the end of his presidency.

Unless, of course, the “running” takes place via Tehran or Riyadh. Which I see as more likely.

Greg Djerejian is skeptical, too — though he thinks, as do I, that this would be a disaster if it’s true. Is it true? Let’s just say that at this point, I’m even more skeptical than usual of poorly-sourced stories that would be devastating for the Bush Administration if they were believed. I think I’ll retain that skepticism at least until the election. And I’m not the only one who feels that way.

UPDATE: Reader Mike Robinson emails:

Glenn, I am little confused. So Robert Novak claims Bush has a secret plan to cut and run next year from Iraq. Now, wait a minute. Wasn’t just a three days ago that Kerry was claiming Bush had a secret plan to call up more National Guard and Reserve troops? Why, yes he did. [“Kerry: Bush has secret troop call-up plan.”]

Well, which is it, dang it?!!? Are we going to escalate or cut or run? What other secret plans are there? I am soooo confused!

Yeah, it’s hard to remember what we’re supposed to be worrying about this week.

HAVING HAD IT WITH RA^THERGATE for the moment, and since the post-Ivan weather here is magnificent. I took off for the mountains today and just got back. That leaves me a bit behind the curve at the moment. But here’s Rather’s statement, and I have to agree with those who think it’s not enough.

I want to know where the documents came from, and I want to know why Rather isn’t more interested in getting to the bottom of all that — and in telling us what happened. If he’s not willing to do that, he should resign. Or be fired.

Hugh Hewitt writes:

Rather’s statement is a pathetic attempt to save face, a “limited, modified hang-out,” a contingent apology that contains nothing of remorse or any promise of reform much less of resignation.

Jim Geraghty has much more — just keep scrolling.

Meanwhile, John Ellis is advising Mary Mapes: “Call your lawyer immediately. DO NOT, under any circumstances, allow CBS counsel to represent your interests.”

KERRY SHOTGUN UPDATE: Reportedly, Kerry has returned the shotgun that produced so much unfavorable attention.

DAILY KOS is a “satire site?” Either Google News has problems, or the ‘bots have a sense of humor. (Via Tim Blair).

INSTAPUNK is channeling Jonathan Chait.

CBS: Hey, you know, those fake-looking memos might actually be fake! Send them some pajamas!

Once again, it’s hard to tell real life from Scrappleface.

MARK STEYN writes that Kerry’s “Vietnamization” strategy hasn’t worked out. “Ever since the first cries of ”Quagmire!’ back in the early days of the Afghan liberation in 2001, the left have been trying to Vietnamize the war on terror. They failed in that, but they succeeded in the Vietnamization of the election campaign.”

UPDATE: I suppose it’s worth mentioning these thoughts on why the whole “Operation Fortunate Son” thing is ill-conceived, too.

But don’t let the Kerry Campaign’s misuse of John Fogerty’s music, and misrepresentation of his life history, stop you from enjoying the music. I’ve got the Creedence Clearwater Boxed Set and it’s great. They did a good job with the remastering, too.

DEATH OF A BLOGGER: A very nice tribute to Aaron Hawkins, in the Chicago Sun-Times.

JOHN KERRY’S SKILLS AS AN ALLIANCE BUILDER come into question. (And that’s without even mentioning the whole Kerry Australia gaffe).

But Michael Totten is trying to build a hawkish case for Kerry. I’d like to be persuaded by this, but. . . .

TOM MAGUIRE has a lot of interesting posts.

SIMON WORLD has your Asia blog roundup.