Following Charles Duelfer's final report, the Iraq Survey Group has concluded physical examination of Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. The left will gloat over this and has; Glenn Reynolds spent some time discussing the news' meaning with readers. As many of them argued, the rightfulness of liberating Iraq remains undamaged.

The phrase "Dispensing with WMD was a tactical retreat in [Saddam's] ongoing struggle," from Duelfer's own transmittal message, is one opponents of liberation will have to wrestle with. It is the strategic threat the United States would have continued to face, alongside the perpetuation of Oil-for-Food money-hoarding and the maturation of al-Qaeda and Iraqi Intelligence Service ties. So much for "containment."

Many supporters of Iraq's liberation did indeed publicly observe that Bush and Blair's United Nations drive focused too heavily on the WMD case, especially because it remained morally neutral on the question of Iraq's polity. Logically, if Saddam could have proven his disarmament beyond France's, Russia's, Germany's and China's doubts, he could have been left to his own like Gadhafi. On one hand, from what we know now that would have allowed Saddam to shunt his capital into crash programs. On the other, it means the WMD angle was a relatively weak one — which is why it's a favorite of the reactionaries.

But because of that moral neutrality, there's a flaw in the left's charges. If one wants to discredit the president's justifications for deposing Saddam Hussein based on the nature of Iraq's WMD as revealed post-Saddam, then one can't go on to discredit his justifications based on the occupation and reconstruction. The time, effort, money and sacrifice invested in the latter — Bush's "idealism," mocked by his critics — sunders the notion that Operation Iraqi Freedom's case rested on the former.

Thankfully, the right is quite used to the left not making much sense.

We've heard from a Brigadier General and Iraqis; now another encouraging account from the front, this time from a Lieutenant Colonel. It's long, it's richly detailed, and it's more than a little perturbed — and rightfully so. (Via IP.)

ASK THEM NO QUESTIONS, THEY'LL TELL YOU NO LIES: Strategypage dovetails nicely:

The Western media, in their quest for bad news headlines (which sell much better than good news headlines), report only the damage to American and government forces. This gives a very distorted view of the situation. For example, the after-effects of the November battle of Fallujah have generally gone unnoted. Since the anti-government forces in the city were smashed (3,000 fighters killed or captured in a two week campaign, losing over 30 men for each American or Iraqi soldier killed), anti-government activity in the area around Fallujah went down by more than half. The media switched its attention to the next most active area for the anti-government; Mosul. But the government had also moved its police and army units to Mosul, and along with American troops, the anti-government forces are getting hammered again. But you'd never know that by depending on the mass media for information.

Contemplating the extreme divergence between reality and media narrative over the past weeks, I've concluded that the elite left has simply placed its integrity in the ante, betting that if events on the ground just might turn for the worse and corroborate its canned reporting. And if not, that nobody will notice.

Of course, that's what 60 Minutes bet last September — and lost.

Huygens sends its best:

European Space Agency science director David Southwood confirmed the Huygens probe sent the data expected to include pictures and atmospheric measurements up to the Cassini mother ship passing overhead, and Cassini transmitted the information back to antennas on Earth.

Applause erupted at mission control in Darmstadt in western Germany as news of the data transmission came in. The data are expected to shed light on what Titan's atmosphere and surface are made of and possibly on the origins of life on Earth.

That's one safe landing for a probe, another giant leap for mankind.

AND THEN: Mission success. Data transmissions have been received planetside. Details — including photographs — should be released soon.

POSTCARD FROM THE ABYSS: The first images are coming in.

Here's what Iraqis in Babil Province think of their terrorist enemy:

Nearly 1,100 Iraqis converged on a police recruiting center south of Baghdad on Jan. 13 to compete for 100 jobs at police stations throughout northern Babil Province. The large turnout came as a pleasant surprise to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which teamed with local police chiefs to build the local police force. A recruiting call is conducted about once a month and the number of applicants is usually just enough to meet the need.

Marines attribute the surge to increased interest of prominent area sheiks in assuming a greater security and stability role within the province. ...Insurgents have in recent months targeted the fledgling Iraqi Security Forces. In northern Babil, insurgents scored a string of successes last summer before the 24th MEU, which arrived in July, helped Iraqi forces turn things around.

As part of my monthly service as a civil service commissioner for my city I've overseen one police and one fire entry level exam, and for an infant democracy beset by murderous dead-enders and invaders, eleven-to-one is a fine proportion of applicants to positions.

In Baghdad, three hundred more from across the country lined up to keep their streets safe. Day after day, fear is failing.

Brigadier General John Batiste spoke well of his Iraqi counterparts yesterday. And accurately, as an Iraqi Army unit again caught thugs with their shoes untied:

Soldiers from the 201st Iraqi Army on patrol north of the city of Tikrit located a rocket-launching position in Kadasia on Jan. 11 containing three S-5K 57 mm Soviet-made rockets. The rockets were loaded into a homemade rocket launcher aimed at the city of Tikrit. Upon discovering the rockets, the 201st Iraqi Army Battalion called the Joint Coordination Center, which coordinated for an explosive ordnance demolition team to destroy the rockets in place. The EOD team successfully destroyed the rockets without incident.

Elsewhere: Is it time to celebrate when Reuters correctly reports a story that the Associated Press can't? NATO commanders believe some Iraqi security units are capable of training recruits on their own, and may send a smaller contingent than planned. The mainstream media, of course, has gorged itself for months with a narrative subtly (or not so subtly) implying "more troop deployments mean bad things." Reuters got it right. What did the AP do with good news? Give NATO a special dispensation so less troops would mean bad news.

Over at MSNBC, the lead picture read "TRAINING GROUND" this morning. Apparently that didn't meet the network's requirements for provocation, so now it reads "BREEDING GROUND." Keep a watchful eye; if the left can discredit the understanding that Iraq is central to the war, it will. (And recall, if you will, how unreliable the anti-liberation corners of the CIA have been.)

VITAMIN HANSON: Victor says directly what I've been more circumspect with (emphasis mine):

Almost all who supported the war now are bailing on the pretext that their version of the reconstruction was not followed: While a three-week war was their idea, a 20-month messy reconstruction was surely someone else's. Yesterday genius is today's fool — and who knows next month if the elections work? Witness Afghanistan where all those who recently said the victory was "lost" to warlords are now suddenly quiet.

"Almost all" is too broad a brush, but these days I see a lot of "shouldas" and "couldas" without any serious alternative. I also hear the same people who took the failed Taliban to be the scourge of mankind over a year ago ascribing the same qualities to the undeserving enemies of Iraq.

TRUE TO FORM: Craig Brett obliges. Now that's the Reuters I know!

Contact:

The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia, USA, a part of the global network of radio telescopes involved in tracking the Huygens Titan probe, has detected the probe's 'carrier' (tone) signal.

The detection occurred between 11:20 and 11:25 CET, shortly after the probe began its parachute descent through Titan's atmosphere. The extremely feeble signal was first picked up by the Radio Science Receiver supplied by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This signal is an important indication that the Huygens probe is 'alive'. However, it does not contain yet any substance; the latter is expected to come a few hours later via the Cassini spacecraft.

We'll be listening.

IT'S THERE: Radio telescopes have confirmed moonfall. Initial data is expected at 11:30 AM EST.

Is China set to take the world by force? Not unless it does so literally by force, I and my betters argued recently. Via the Corner, the UK's Spectator echoed the position with their latest cover story. The article itself is worth a read, though the summary does nearly as well:

China has no exportable culture, she is militarily overrated and her economy is not as successful as it is cracked up to be. Martin Vander Weyer says it's time we abandoned our superstitious dread of Beijing.

China is a threat, no doubt. But only because of its potential for bad influence, discord, sedition and conquest; in measures of enrichment and innovation, tyrants cannot force their captives to compete with the modern democracy.

On the question of the Allies' standing on the Iraqi front, I asked you to look to the millions of Iraqis who will be electing representatives to set the foundations of self-rule for the first time in history, native and faithful émigrés. Listen, too, to the men who are defeating Iraq's authoritarian enemy. Major General John Batiste, Commander, 1st Infantry Division:

[I] expect the insurgency to continue with intimidation in small cells. He is going to intimidate the weak. He's going to go after the lamb. He'll go after the Iraqi security forces when he can find them in small numbers, because he's beginning to fear the Iraqi security forces. He'll attack us from a distance.

The fight for freedom, at any time and in any place, will never be easy. But with this confidence it will never be lost.

In twelve hours, Saturn mission probe Huygens lands on the ringed planet's largest moon, Titan. The probe will collect data during descent and for a brief period after impact. Earth will know of Huygen's fate by lunchtime tomorrow.

Read about the mission here.

While a former presidential candidate consoles tyrants, Norman Podhoretz examines the progress America has made in making tyrants extinct.