IRAQ - The Real Joke, But Nobody's Laughing

"Did You Hear the Joke About the Warheads That Got Away?" by Jackson Williams, Huffington Post

Six nuclear warheads walk into a bar.

The bartender says, "Sorry, we don't serve WMDs here."

The main warhead replies, "Oh, you'll serve us, pal, or we'll blow this place to kingdom come and let Con Edison take the blame."

The bartender, shaken and stirred, promptly moves to Canada.

Take a picture of this: President Bush insists the "war on terror" involves parking the U.S. military squarely in the middle of Arabia for year after year. We're up to five now if my math is right, and just two months ago General Petraeus compared the latest surge effort to Britain's experience in Northern Ireland, saying that similar counterinsurgency operations "have gone at least nine or ten years."

I don't know a soul -- of any persuasion -- who bought into the concept of a 15 year American war in the Middle East, do you? Besides, Ireland was under British control for over eight centuries, and Dublin and Liverpool are only 130 miles apart. What possible relevance is that to our current mess six thousand miles away, on the other side of the planet?

Meanwhile, back home, non-mythical weapons of mass destruction are accidentally carted over red state America from North Dakota to Louisiana without even the pilots knowing their cargo. As Kansan Bob Dole used to say, "Where's the outrage?"

Try and imagine the hue and cry from Republicans if the past seven years of across-the-board incompetence had occurred under a Democratic president. Under, say, Hillary Clinton. It would be deafening. Instead they are silent, while their leading presidential contenders, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson, proudly promise more of the same bedrock beliefs.

That's the real joke, but nobody's laughing.