No, YOU'RE missing the point

Incredibly, Annie defends Newsweek's "awesometastic" reporting here.

Perhaps it was because of her scattershot formatting of quotes and links, but I'm having a hard time following her argument here. I'm hypocritical because I support one thing that killed people (the war), but not another (Newsweek's fictitiousness), is how I think it goes. Well, I think I've been fairly consistent in strenuously opposing polititans, media, and, ahem, "entertainment" that serves to embolden our enemy by giving them "gription" in the public relations war.

Howevs, I have to take issue with her claim that war intelligence came from "false information from one source." I know anti-war folks have issues with the CIA, NSA, the INC, and Ahmed Chalabi, and the intelligence services of nearly 50 nations, but hey, that's more than one souce, no? And didn't the administration, y'know, tell us where they got the info? That's more than Newsweek has done. Or CBS News, for that matter. I'll also take issue with Newsweek's "clarification," which has since become a full-blown retraction. So, while we're getting our facts wrong (I'm sure you'll retract your post very soon), I should point out that I can't make this post too much longer because my wife, Mrs. Nicole Kidman-Beukema, is begging me to take her to see the new Star Wars movie.

Lucky for you folks, I don't take orders from Australians. So. I think a key point here is this:

The original article was blamed for inciting widespread protests and riots in the Muslim world, where desecration of the Koran is viewed as an incendiary act, and where at least 17 people were killed in the ensuing violence. *

Newsweek saw the story only as a way to slam Bush and the war effort, and failed to see the consequences publishing it would have. They've admitted as much.

I haven't the time nor the inclination to refute her oddly-formatted quiz point by point. And if she still thinks the war was illegal, or that it was all about the oil, or whatever the hippie conspiracy du jour is, I don't think there's anything I or anyone else could say to change her mind at this point.

Look, I'm sorry you didn't get your way, and that we couldn't all sit down and have milk and cookies with So-damn Insane. I'm sorry that Al Qaeda got their feelings hurt when we played dress-up with them and let the mean doggies bark at them. I'm sorry that France couldn't cash their Oil-For-Food checks fast enough to publish DeVillepan's next book of poetry in time for Chirac's election. This is war, and bad shit happens. Not Dresden bad, which Annie can't seem to find her way clear to mention, but bad enough. Like people getting killed. What we don't need is people who are allegedly on our side making things worse just so they can get another pat on the back at the next cocktail party on the Upper East Side. The irony is almost too rich when Annie goes on to slam me for "condescending" in the same post. What would make the irony in actuality too rich would be if Annie voted for Bush in 2000. Ooops, I think it just got too rich.