With war on the horizon, the blogosphere is definitely gearing up. Lately, I've found myself unable to link every deserving post: not enough space, and don't want to cramp the rest of the team's excellent stuff.

In an effort to bring y'all some of the more interesting pieces out there, I'm going to try putting each day's interesting links in one post of short listings, and adding to it as we come across stuff. Eventually, I hope the team as a whole will get the hang of the formatting and make it a group resource.

• Just before Sept. 11, al-Qaeda murdered Northern Alliance commander Masood. Saturday, members of the Al Qaeda-linked Kurdish Islamic extremist group Ansar al Islam, masquerading as defectors, murdered several top military leaders of the pro-American Kurdish PUK. Al-Qaeda's first shot in Gulf War II? LGF has the details.
  
  
• Random Thoughts has picked up a report that Turkey is gearing up to occupy northern Iraq with 80,000 troops. But the source was Agence France Presse... so I want real confirmation before I believe it.
  
  
• One of the main arguments made by folks on the Left is that Saddam is a rational actor. Liberal blogger & journalist Joshua Micah Marshall isn't so sure any more.
  
  
• Calpundit, meanwhile, has a long sit-down talk with his compatriots on the Left about Iraq. The very epitome of the reluctant liberal warrior, but he makes a strong case to his audience.
  
  
• Britain's PM Tony Blair makes his own case in the Guardian today, explaining how acting in Iraq fits with his famous "third way" approach. (Hat Tip: Rantburg)
  
  
• Matt Welch looks at the record, and says the Bush team's diplomacy is one long round of Good Cop/ Bad Cop. Seems to work, too. (Hat Tip: Instapundit)
  
  
• Speaking of Instaman, don't miss his post on this past weekend's Saturday Night Live show. Anyone who thinks this is frivolous doesn't understand how real a barometer of popular culture U.S. comedy & variety shows are. You're more advised to pay attention to them than to political shows like Crossfire. (Instaman update: see this recent poll)
  
  
• In a similar vein, Andrew Sullivan's Thought for the Day has Sen. John McCain warning the Europeans, publicly, about the wrath of the American street. Senator, you're the best. About damn time.
  
  
• Gweilo Diaries has some odds on when the latest Franco-German proposal will be accepted. Got a picture, too.
  
  
• Photodude asks: "please, define unilateralism."
  
  
• Rev. Donald Sensing (formerly Major Donald Sensing) notes: "One of the things I tried to explain was that there is a political process of the decision to wage war and that in Western countries, this process is theoretically and practically wedded to Just War Theory. So I'd like to say a word about that process."
  
  
• Emperor Misha I doesn't see what all the fuss is about re: all those poet activists. In fact, he finds one of their poetic works rather moving.
  
  
• Pejman notes that the Iranian's have just acknowledged mining uranium for their nuclear program. Uh oh. Rantburg has more.
  
  
• Blaster's Blog has some concrete suggestions re: what you should do under a "threat condition:" orange" warning. Remember Armed Liberal's emergency kit? This takes it one step further.
  
  
• Always end on a lighter note. Happy Fun Pundit sure has that, with a drop dead hilarious set of Donald Rumsfeld sketches (folks, this has become a whole genre lately).