Monday's reads

'Tillman comrade recalls final moments' - Matthew Mendoza - AP News.

The chaplain told investigators that O'Neal said Tillman was harsh in his last moments, snapping, 'Would you shut your (expletive) mouth? God's not going to help you; you need to do something for yourself, you sniveling ..."

"He never would have called me 'sniveling,'" O'Neal said. "I don't remember ever speaking to this chaplain, and I find this characterization of Pat really upsetting. He never once degraded me. He's the only person I ever worked for who didn't degrade anyone. He wasn't that sort of person."

'Cream of the crop take note' - Ben Smith - The Politico.

Each morning in Washington, D.C., around dawn, three men wake up and concoct their versions of conventional wisdom for an audience of Beltway political professionals and junkies around the
country.

'A War We Just Might Win' - Michael E. O'Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack - The New York Times.

Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.