Call It the Abu Ghraib Memo

"But the Iraqis have made few gains on the political front since nearly 30,000 additional U.S. troops were sent to Iraq."

Warren P. Strobel and Nancy A. Youssef write for McClatchy Newspapers: "'There is no empirical evidence that the Iraqi forces can stand up' on their own, a senior U.S. military official in Washington said, reflecting the frustration of some at the Pentagon. He and other military officials requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak for the record.

"Having Iraqi forces take a leadership role in combating militias and Islamic extremists was crucial to U.S. hopes of withdrawing more American forces in Iraq and reducing the severe strains the Iraq war has put on the Army and Marine Corps.

"The failure of Iraqi forces to defeat rogue fighters in Basra has some in the military fearing they can no longer predict when it might be possible to reduce the number of troops to pre-surge levels.

"'It's more complicated now,' said one officer in Iraq whose role has been critical to American planning there.

"Questions remain about how much Bush and his top aides knew in advance about the offensive and whether they encouraged Maliki to confront radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr.

"A senior U.S. lawmaker and four military officials said Tuesday that the Americans were aware in general terms of the coming offensive, but were surprised by the timing and by the Iraqis' almost immediate need for U.S. air support and other help."

Bush and NATO

Peter Baker writes for The Washington Post: "President Bush set the stage Wednesday for a contentious three-day NATO summit, where disputes over missile defense, the war in Afghanistan and expansion into former Soviet territory likely will test the unity of the 26-member alliance.

"As leaders converged on this Balkan capital, two decades after the ouster and execution of its Communist dictator opened doors to the West, Bush called on the Atlantic alliance to do more to transform itself for a new era of more disparate threats. But his calls for more NATO troops for Afghanistan and membership roadmaps for Ukraine and Georgia provoked deep skepticism and face an uncertain outcome. . . .

"Bush has signaled in the past two days that he is not looking for a face-saving compromise and would rather press the confrontation even if it ruptures the summit. Before arriving here, he stopped in Ukraine for a high-profile display of support, declaring that 'Russia will not have a veto over what happens in Bucharest' and dismissing any suggestions of a deal with Moscow. 'There's no tradeoffs, period.'"

Matt Spetalnick and Susan Cornwell write for Reuters: "Bush's keynote speech at a pre-summit conference in Bucharest read like a laundry list of his foreign policy woes as he struggles to stay relevant abroad in the twilight of his second and final term.

"But with Bush even more unpopular overseas than at home, he could have a hard time swaying world leaders as they look to whomever will succeed him as president in January 2009. . . .

"European critics accuse Bush of being distracted by the Iraq war, which has helped cement a go-it-alone image in world affairs. They say he has not paid enough attention to what they see as a more important fight in Afghanistan."

The Los Angeles Times editorial board writes: "It isn't often that we take Vladimir V. Putin's side on issues of international governance, but the bellicose Russian president is right about the matter expected to dominate this week's NATO summit: Ukraine and Georgia don't belong in the alliance. At least not yet."

Premature Cutoff

Terence Hunt writes for the Associated Press that Bush tried to end a news conference today before his host, Romanian President Traian Basescu, was ready.

"'Thank you. Thank you very much,' Bush told reporters, a code phrase that means, 'That's it, folks.'

"Typically, as a matter of courtesy and protocol, the host decides when such an event is over. But Bush has been known to ignore that practice. . . .

"He strolled over to Basescu and asked if he was ready to take a walk by the water.

"'Just a moment,' Basescu interjected politely.

"Oh.

"'He's not through,' Bush observed. Bush headed back to his podium, on the beach of the Black Sea at Basescu's picturesque retreat.

"The Romanian president took a few moments to comment about an important issue in his country, the availability of visas for people to visit the U.S.

"Then -- finished for real this time -- the two leaders took their stroll by the water."

Warrantless Wiretapping Watch

Siobhan Gorman writes in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required): "The White House, seeking to break a months-long standoff, has signaled to Democratic lawmakers it is open to negotiation over a proposal to expand government spy powers, according to officials familiar with the conversations."

House Democrats have broken with their Senate colleagues in rejecting immunity for companies, and demanding tougher judicial oversight of any eavesdropping effort. Gorman writes: "People familiar with the matter said the White House has floated ideas to find common ground but hasn't offered a formal compromise proposal. Officials in both parties said judicial oversight might be an easier area for the administration to make concessions.

"The White House's more conciliatory posture reflects a recognition that the Bush administration's leverage on national-security matters has slipped since this past summer, a top Republican congressional aide said. 'There's a recognition that if they're actually going to get a product they can support, there's going to have to be some new level of engagement,' the aide said.

"For months, the White House has tried to replicate its performance last August, when Republicans outmaneuvered Democrats and forced passage of a temporary expansion of domestic spy powers. Republicans then tried to use the temporary law's expiration date to force Democrats to accept a permanent expansion. But since the law expired Feb. 16, House Democrats have stood firm."

Intel Watch

Mark Mazzetti writes in the New York Times: "The Pentagon is expected to shut a controversial intelligence office that has drawn fire from lawmakers and civil liberties groups who charge that it was part of an effort by the Defense Department to expand into domestic spying.

"The move, government officials say, is part of a broad effort under Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to review, overhaul and, in some cases, dismantle an intelligence architecture built by his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld. . . .

"[T]he office, whose size and budget is classified, came under fierce criticism in 2005 after it was disclosed that it was managing a database that included information about antiwar protests planned at churches, schools and Quaker meeting halls."

Meanwhile, however, Robert O'Harrow Jr. writes in The Washington Post: "Intelligence centers run by states across the country have access to personal information about millions of Americans, including unlisted cellphone numbers, insurance claims, driver's license photographs and credit reports, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post....

"Dozens of the organizations known as fusion centers were created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to identify potential threats and improve the way information is shared. The centers use law enforcement analysts and sophisticated computer systems to compile, or fuse, disparate tips and clues and pass along the refined information to other agencies. They are expected to play important roles in national information-sharing networks that link local, state and federal authorities and enable them to automatically sift their storehouses of records for patterns and clues. . . .

"Government watchdogs, along with some police and intelligence officials, said they worry that the fusion centers do not have enough oversight and are not open enough with the public, in part because they operate under various state rules."

Bush and Climate Change

The Washington Post editorial board writes: "The Bush administration never had any intention of doing what the Supreme Court commanded it to do a year ago today: regulate greenhouse gas emissions. We infer this because, even though President Bush ordered his agencies last May to work together to meet the court's directive, and even though the Environmental Protection Agency delivered to the White House last December its finding that those pollutants endanger public welfare, a prerequisite for regulation, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson announced last week a plan to seek public input starting in the spring on how best to limit the emissions. Translation: punt to the next administration. This giant step backward is the starkest example yet of the chasm between the words and deeds of Mr. Bush on climate change."

Cheney Watch

Daniel Heim writes in Roll Call about former Rhode Island Republican senator Lincoln Chafee's new book: "The former Senator describes a December 2000 meeting of Republican moderates with Vice President-elect Cheney. Chafee listened as Cheney swore off the moderate course he and Bush had just finished championing in their campaign.

"Hearing Cheney say 'the campaign was over and that our actions in office would not be dictated by what had to be said in the campaign,' Chafee writes, was 'the most demoralizing moment of my seven-year tenure in the Senate.'"

Cartoon Watch

David Horsey on Bush's cowboy economics; Dwane Powell, Mike Luckovich and John Sherffius on the defining moment in Iraq.