Priorities

I know I ought to be crowing now that the Dick and the Dauphin have been further implicated in the plot to out/smear/discredit/whatever Valerie Plame-Wilson and her husband Ambassador Goodhair, but honestly, I don't give a damn. The notion now prevalent in Democratic circles--that other than some dastardly Bush appointees making trouble at the top of the organizational chart, Langley is populated by moral paragons toiling in anonymity for the good of the US and the world--well, it strikes me as ludicrous, even for the Democratic party. While it may be underhanded or even vaguely shameful that a sitting President is outing covert operatives of his own government in order to score political points against his enemies, the ongoing chorus crying that this has done some great damage to America should kindly shut up and consider the history of the Agency under any administration. They're a pretty dastardly bunch themselves, and I trust they can take care of themselves, right up to the cover of Vanity Fair.

Meanwhile, in news that matters, our effort, to speak kindly of it, in Iraq continues to ratchet toward the inescapable grip of civil war. There are a number of voices that I respect, including those of Juan Cole and Pat Lang, that say we cannot abandon the Iraqis now. Heaven knows what that means? The belief that we have some capacity to forestall an already-present civil war is laughably hopeful, and the idea that we'll have the capacity to extricate ourselves neatly once that war begins in full is equally so. As it is our troops can't tell friend from foe--lord help-'em if the country devloves into even greater chaos.

It comes as no surprise that the dauphin should tell some toady to go yap about pussy-whipped Joe Wilson. At heart a frat boy, I can imagine him sending some eager pledge to squeal "fag" on a social rival. This is all a huge sideshow distracting from the principal issue of the moment, which is that there is a US militayr presence in the heart of the Middle East that will be there until Victory, which seems, more and more, to mean "forever."