HAWK-BAITING: So I was remembering how all the hawkosphere was abuzz a few months back about David Kay's then-forthcoming report on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, and how it was going to put all the war skeptics in their place. And I was reading the same folks going on about his report after it finally appeared, saying the "biased" media was missing the bits in it that showed that Saddam really was up to no good; and I was noticing how they never seemed to acknowledge that they had oversold his report before they had seen it. And I was thinking, wouldn't it be neat to dig out a quote from one of those pundits a few months back, and compare it to what he's saying now?

Then I found out I didn't have to do that, because Joshua Micah Marshall had already done it. Here, he points out, is Charles Krauthammer last April:

Hans Blix had five months to find weapons. He found nothing. We've had five weeks. Come back to me in five months. If we haven't found any, we will have a credibility problem. I don't have any doubt that we will locate them. I think it takes time.

And here's Krauthammer today, after his five-month deadline has passed:

Hussein was simply making his WMD program more efficient and concealable. His intent and capacity were unchanged.

While I'm at it, I gotta register a complaint about the double standard at the heart of the war party's line on the occupation. Apparently, it's too early to declare the reconstruction of Iraq is failing, and anyone who says otherwise is a peacenik defeatist. But it's never too early to declare the reconstruction is succeeding, and anyone who says otherwise is a peacenik defeatist.

Fer chrissakes, people, isn't there any room for uncertainty in your world?

posted by Jesse 10:37 AM

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