BushCo drummed it into our heads that this invasion merited the name "war." It was about as much a war as watching Dennis Kucinich take on three heavyweight cage-fighters at once could be called a "fight," but we let them get away with it, lending epic scope to their dirty little gambit with a powerful word.

Now, it has come back to bite them in the ass. The problem with the word "war" is that it is firmly associated with two other words: "win" and "lose." In wars, when the dust settles, there are the victor and the vanquished. Whenever it stops and it's time to tot up the score, one party is declared the biggest cock on the block and one party is declared the pitiful wimp who lost.

No such problem with an invasion, or a police action or an "expeditionary force for regime change." These terms don't conjure the black/white outcome words. There are myriad labels this fiasco could've had that would have spared BushCo the agony of having to "win" when no such option is really available. But they just had to mislabel it a "war" because that made Bush a "war president" and that was necessary to the whole enterprise.

About MoveOn. I have sent untold thousands to them over the years but I've always cringed at their ads. They have a sledgehammer level of subtlety, which MoveOn justifies as being necessary to get through people's thick skulls. But the term "tone-deaf" is appropriate. Shrill, nasty and insensitive to the need to lead people to the light, not drag them. It's a shame, they could do so much more with a little more Mad Ave. and a little less Jerry Rubin.

Any chance they asked him whether he's likely to pursue investigations of his predecessor, his predecessor's appointments in the DOJ and connections to the White House during the politicization process?

"Is the Pentagon arranging for its favorite defense contractors to make a fucking fortune before the connection with Iraq is lost forever?"

McCormack sez: "I'm sure, however, that in every instance we would be able to ensure that our people are protected and able to do their jobs." Really. Without the independent contractors? Without Blackwater? I'd love to know how.

In one of those metaphysical moments of synchronism, my daughter came home from school Friday and told me about this amazing writer she encountered in AP Contemporary English Lit. named Denis Johnson, and now Laura Miller's well-written review, just like that. Next stop, Amazon. One-day delivery.

The time has come for people outside the blogosphere to emphasize what chickenhawks these guys (and gals) are and to organize in a way so as to pressure WaPo et al., to publish other voices (petitions, ads, etc.), particularly voices of people who've been right about Iraq. -- Raj

Or at least to publish their Sara-Lee-fed wanker photos alongside their articles.

When the most recent reports first came out, the Iraqis were said to have met only 3 of 18 benchmarks. Then the White House started moving the goalposts and redefining success and presto-change-o, today the WaPo blithely accepts that the Iraqis have met 9 of the 18 benchmarks. Mind you, nothing has changed in Iraq. The Bush admin. has been allowed to hypnotize people into believing something different than what independent assessors of the situation in Iraq found. All this with the willing and enthusiastic help of the media, whowill be remembered by history as having helped the most dangerous liars on the planet spread their lies, all the while claiming to the eyes and the ears "of the people."

They may be disingenuous, but as a customer of Wells Fargo, I don't mind them catering to me first and non-customers second.

On the one hand, it's true that the motives for the invasion were anything BUT what we were told. On the other, if a guy is robbing my house, I don't much care if it's to pay for a new car or because he enjoys the thrill. The point is to stop him. We've got to get out of Iraq and I think, if these babbling "Senior White House Officials" are any indication, the wheels are truly coming off their ability to keep convincing people we should stay. Doesn't really matter what the original plan was, because it obviously hasn't worked.

It isn't just Bush who's an inarticulate moron. "Senior White House Officials" (plural) are also inarticulate morons. How many of them are there? Obviously, way too many. Yikes.

Not that it matters a whole lot, but those foreclosures "in the late 80's" I was talking about -- that was the mid-late 90's. Man, I remember when a year was a big deal. Now I'm getting my decades mixed up.