CNN.com is running kind of an odd story about how the cable news networks are underreporting the weakness of the case about links between al-Qaeda and Iraq. It’s true, of course, but couldn’t they just start reporting properly instead of writing about how they aren’t?

From Selling an Iraq-al Qaeda connection:

While some members of al Qaeda could be operating out of Iraq, intelligence and investigative sources said there is evidence the group also operates out of Iran and Pakistan. And while there is evidence Iraqi officials might have helped al Qaeda years ago, the same case could be made for Pakistani, Yemeni and Saudi officials.
…
In a February CNN-Time poll, 76 percent of those surveyed felt Saddam provides assistance to al Qaeda. Another poll released in February asked, "Was Saddam Hussein personally involved in the September 11 attacks?" Although it is a claim the Bush administration has never made and for which there is no evidence, 72 percent said it was either very or somewhat likely.

And there are more stories in the press today of the, “oh, crap, we aren’t really going to do this, are we?” variety. The Washington Post says that the Army is getting jittery about what it is being asked to do.

The U.S. Army is bracing both for war in Iraq and a postwar occupation that could tie up two to three Army divisions in an open-ended mission that would strain the all-volunteer force and put soldiers in the midst of warring ethnic and religious factions, Army officers and other senior defense officials say.

While the officers believe a decade of peacekeeping operations in Haiti, Somalia, the Balkans and now Afghanistan makes the Army uniquely qualified for the job, they fear that bringing democracy and stability to Iraq may be an impossible task.

That’s funny: I would have brought up Somalia and Afghanistan as examples of them not being very good at it.

The Post also reports that Islamic scholars at al-Azhar University, generally considered to be the center of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence, have called for jihad against the West if an attack on Iraq proceeds. That’s OK, the Shi’i will like us, right?

In another sign that the Wolfowitz plan for winning over the Arab world is making inroads, the new hit tune sweeping the Arab world is Shaaban Abdel-Rahim’s “the Attack on Iraq,” featuring such lyrics as, “Iraq, too, after Afghanistan? Nobody knows tomorrow, whose turn will come next." The Shaaban’s last big hit was equally subtle: I can attest that “I Hate Israel” was massively popular in Egypt and Jordan.