DEFENDING DASCHLE (shudder): Charles Murtaugh and Matt Yglesias have been getting on Andrew Sullivan’s case for sounding like a blog parody–no wait, that’s me. Actually, they’ve been slagging Sullivan for going berserk when various Democrats raised questions about the direction of the war (how do we know we’ve won/we can’t declare victory until we get Bin Laden, basically). CM and MY have a point, but they muddy it by comparing current Dem statements to Republicans’ similar comments questioning Clinton’s actions in Kosovo.

Uh, Milosevic didn’t slam four planes into American buildings, soil, and people. He didn’t have (I think…) tentacles in dozens of countries. He didn’t organize his world around unrelenting opposition to America. This is a different fight. I know both Murtaugh and Yglesias know this; but I think this distinction makes comparisons to Kosovo (or the Gulf War) basically meaningless. The many-countries question, especially, is a sharp difference from those conflicts. But read the posts; Murtaugh’s is especially insightful. He’s right. Even if they’re Harvard boys.