Take Ed Morrissey. He is one of the more intelligent and level-headed of the Right bloggers, which, admittedly, is not much of a compliment imo. But he writes this about the Jamil Hussein story:

This certainly tends to discredit the blogospheric attacks on AP if true, as well as the US and Iraqi protestations. However, it doesn't remove all of the questions about Jamil Hussein and the stories he supposedly sourced, and the first problem is the story that started the entire problem. Neither the AP nor any other news source has independently verified the story of the November burning and shooting death of six in the mosque. In fact, no one can confirm that a fire occurred at a mosque that day, other than the elusive Captain Hussein.

Nobody has confirmed that a mosque was burned? Well how about these guys?

Contrary to recent media reporting that four mosques were burned in Hurriya, an Iraqi Army patrol investigating the area found only one mosque had been burned in the neighborhood.

. . . At approximately 3:50 p.m., a local civilian reported to the patrol that armed insurgents had set the Al-Nidaa mosque on fire by throwing a gas container into the mosque. The patrol pursued the insurgents but lost contact with them.

The Soldiers called the fire department and set up a cordon around the mosque. Local fire trucks responded to the scene and extinguished the fire at approximately 4:00 p.m. The mosque sustained smoke and fire damage in the entry way but was not destroyed.

. . . The patrol was also unable to confirm media reports that six Sunni civilians were allegedly dragged out of Friday prayers and burned to death. Neither Baghdad police nor Coalition forces have reports of any such incident.

So there WAS a fire. And there IS a police officer named Jamil Hussein who worked at the very police station that the AP said he worked at. So far, the Right blogs are 0 for 2.

Morrisey continues:

And then there's the question about the Iraqi intent to arrest Hussein. Why would they want to arrest him if he told the truth to the AP? Certainly crime is a matter of public record, and if his dozens of tips to the AP accurately describe real incidents, then they should have no real problem with his interaction with journalists. . . . [S]imply relating actual incidents to a reporter should garner no more than a termination, and given the need for police in Iraq, it's doubtful it would amount to even that.

I truly do not know what to say about this. Does Morrissey really believe this? Does he believe that the Iraqi government would not want to suppress this type of news? From sheer embarrassment if nothing else now? How can you reason with this? This is the equivalent of Jason Leopold and his bogus Rove indicted story.

Morrisey continues, citing Flopping Aces:

As far as the burning bodies story goes we already know that all we have to prove that this incident happened are three unnamed witnesses. One Imam who quickly retracted the story. And one police officer named Jamil Hussein.

That's it.

No names of the victims. No family members of the victims have been identified. No one know where the bodies are. No photographic evidence of a burning. Nothing other then the word of three unnamed witnesses and a police officer.

Just 3 witnesses and a POLICE OFFICER? My gawd, how thin can a story be? This is just well, delusion. What can one say about this?

But even this delusion is false:

On Tuesday, two AP reporters also went back to the Hurriyah neighborhood around the Mustafa mosque and found three witnesses who independently gave accounts of the attack. Others in the neighborhood said they were afraid to talk about what happened.

. . . Two of the witnesses — a 45-year-old bookshop owner and a 48-year-old neighborhood grocery owner — gave nearly identical accounts of what happened. A third, a physician, said he saw the attack on the mosque from his home, saw it burning and heard people in the streets screaming that people had been set on fire. All three men are Sunni Muslims.

The two other witnesses said the mosque assault began in earnest about 2:30 p.m. after the arrival of the four vehicles filled with arms. They said the attackers fired into the mosque, then entered and set it on fire.

Then, the witnesses said, the attackers brought out six men, blindfolded and handcuffed, and lined them up on the street at the gate of the mosque. The witnesses said the six were doused with kerosene from a 1.3-gallon canister and set on fire at intervals, one after the other, with a torch made of rags. The fifth and sixth men in the line were set afire at the same time.

The witnesses said the burning victims rolled on the ground in agony until apparently dead, then the gunmen fired a single bullet into each of their heads.

. . . One witness said he and other people from the neighborhood took the six immolation victims to the Sunni cemetery near Baghdad's Abu Ghraib suburb and buried them after the gunbattle. That witness said one of the victims was the Mustafa mosque muezzin or prayer caller, Ahmed al-Mashadani. He did not know the names of the five others, but said they were all members of the al-Mashadani tribe.

So we have where the bodies were buried, the name of one of the victims and the tribe all were members of. But there were only 3 eyewitnesses and a police officer after all.

What's my point about all this? The point is this - the Right will never accept the reality of Iraq. Want more evidence? Here is Morrissey on a story he likes, ironically from the hated BBC, concerning some captured Iranian intelligence agents:

Five Iranians detained by US forces in Baghdad last month were senior intelligence officers engaged in a covert political mission to influence the Iraqi government, the BBC said.

"There were five senior officers in various intelligence organisations... It was a very significant meeting... These people have been collared, relatively speaking, up to no good," one unnamed British official told the broadcaster.

US forces detained 10 people on December 21 on suspicion of weapons smuggling after finding what they said were documents, maps, photographs and videos in a raid at pro-Iranian Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim's compound.

The US wants the men designated as personae non grata, which would strip them of any diplomatic immunity if they return to Iraq. So far, the Iraqis seem unwilling to do so, but they may need to answer why they want Iranian spies as participants in their political strategy sessions.

Wow! They really do not get it do they? The Iraqi Shiite government is FILLED with Iranian supporters. Has the Right not heard of SCIRI and Dawa? Do they really think Sadr is the only Iraqi faction leader backed by Iran?

Oh by the way, what of this? Bush meets with the leader of Iranian backed-SCIRI. What is going on here? And Joe Lieberman writes this:

This bloodshed, moreover, is not the inevitable product of ancient hatreds. It is the predictable consequence of a failure to ensure basic security and, equally important, of a conscious strategy by al-Qaeda and Iran, which have systematically aimed to undermine Iraq's fragile political center. On this point, let there be no doubt: If Iraq descends into full-scale civil war, it will be a tremendous battlefield victory for al-Qaeda and Iran. Iraq is the central front in the global and regional war against Islamic extremism.

Sp let's get this straight - BOTH Al Qaida AND Iran are winning? Even though they are fighting each other? Joe Lieberman has lost his marbles. As has the Right apparently.

But we have a big day tomorrow, because John McCain and Lieberman will be giving "serious remarks" in support of their plan to double down on their Iraq Debacle.

Who will stop the madness?