Inoperative

Opinion Journal's James Taranto deliver's a devastating blow to my deluded anti-war world view. It turns out that Max Cleland -- who I had counted on to the exclusion of all other sources about the Iraq war -- tries to avoid hearing about what is occurring in the war because the devastating injuries that the former Georgia senator suffered in Vietnam have left him with post traumatic stress disorder. Taranto cleverly asks:

How credible is Cleland as "a vocal critic of the Iraq war" when by his own admission his approach to it is "avoidance, not wanting to connect with anything dealing with" it, and trying "to disconnect and disassociate" from sources of information about it? Something tells us he was better informed in 2002, when he voted for the war--a fact the AP inexplicably leaves out.

Taranto is obviously right -- to paraphrase Nixon's press secretary, Ron Ziegler; all previous criticisms of the Iraq War are inoperative. It turns out we were all wrong to listen exclusively to Cleland about the war -- we aren't in a Mesopotamian quagmire after all. The invasion was a glorious success. In fact, most of our troops were withdrawn after a government was formed in the summer of 2003. I bet their new currency is called the Rummy. I haven't bothered to check, but I believe that Ahmed Chalabi is the Iraq ambassador to Israel and he works closely with that country to counter the Iranian threat. When I catch up on my reading I am sure that I will find that Sadr City has become a vibrant high tech corridor with fancy coffee shops and internet cafes.

I have alerted the management of Antiwar.com and they assure me that their new domain will be Prowar.com. I can only imagine how embarassed Justin Raimondo is after penning three columns a week for the last three years, based exclusively on the reports of Max Cleland.

Finally, let me join Taranto in sneering at Cleland. So the former Georgia senator, who lost three limbs in Vietnam (boo hoo, he still has an arm) got a little weepy over hearing about casualties in Iraq. Hey, if you want to make a neocon souffle, you gotta break a few thousand eggs.