I don't do this nearly enough anymore. Sorry. Maybe I will try to get some life, but more likely - no, I won't.

But I want to put this in here: Tom Friedman's latest column about the Spanish elections. The "Axis of Appeasement" - part of a chorus of comments about how the Spain, by voting in the opposition party in the wake of the Madrid bombings, was "appeasing" Al Qaeda:

The new Spanish government's decision to respond to the attack by Al Qaeda by going ahead with plans to pull its troops from Iraq constitutes the most dangerous moment we've faced since 9/11. It's what happens when the Axis of Evil intersects with the Axis of Appeasement and the Axis of Incompetence.

Who's the Axis of Incompetence here? Bush? I can't tell. But the argument is specious in the extreme. First, because the evidence seems to point to resentment at the Spanish government's attempts to use the bombings to their own end, accusing the Basque rebels of the attack, even in the face of evidence incriminating Al Qaeda; second, because the Iraq war was always extremely unpopular in Spain, and the opposition was campaigning on pulling out - so they are simply delivering what they promised.

But all of this hangs on the idea that the invasion and occupation of Iraq is part of the "war on terror" and not a distraction from the "war on terror." That idea hangs on a pretty consistant refusal to acknowledge the facts. Now - today - Iraq may well be a battleground against terrorism (in the international sense that the war against Al Qaeda - a far more meaningful way of referring to it, and the one crucial part of it), but that's our fault. By attacking a non-combatant, someone who, while no prize, was not hurting us, and not helping them, we provided them with a place to fight - a cause to rally around - and

Somewhere about here I forget whether I am talking about Al Qaeda or the pro-Iraq war people. The former insist that Iraq is part of the war on terror - the latter are very happy to accept that, and make it part of the war on - the war on terror, or whatever...

I have to add some snark, and better do it now... Friedman adds some thoughts on what he'd like to see:

My dream is that the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and Spain announce tomorrow that in response to the Madrid bombing, they are sending a new joint force of 5,000 troops to Iraq for the sole purpose of protecting the U.N.'s return to Baghdad to oversee Iraq's first democratic election.

He forgot to add - "and a pony!"