MONDAY ROUNDUP

U.S. military operations in Iraq and the fight against terrorists are on bloggers’ minds this Memorial Day. Conservatives find troops making clear progress on both fronts, while liberals write about Congress’s attempts to stop Bush administration’s policies from weakening the military and civil liberties at home.

Since 2003, terrorist attacks against the United States and its interests abroad have been unsuccessful, thanks in part to the Bush administration efforts in Iraq and against Al Qaeda, according to Power Line’s John Hinderaker. Al Qaeda and Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been weakened by the military surge in Iraq over the past year, according to RedState’s Charles Bird. But should Al Qaeda become crippled, groups like Hamas and Hezbollah would still be around to threaten the West, writes Michelle Malkin.

President Bush’s choices have hurt the troops and freedom that Americans at home deserve, liberal bloggers counter. John McCain should get behind a “common-sense bill” sponsored by Senate Democrats that offers troops financial compensation if their Iraq tours were involuntary extended, Daily Kos’s georgia10 writes. Also at Kos, Kagro X again urges Congress not to cave into the White House’s demands for a more surveillance powers, finding the Bush administration’s argument — that Congress authorized the powers in 2001 — just as specious as the one it has used to detain terror suspects indefinitely.

In the presidential race, Libertarian Bob Barr,