Warm Words for Mickey Kaus

As we noted a week ago during the Althouse “tiny prick” fiasco, of the targets of LGM’s “adopt a wingnut” program, Mickey Kaus has consistently reacted in the most cordial fashion. Whereas Althouse obviously bottled up her anger and resentment until it all came flying out in one genitalia-bashing storm, and while Treason-in-Defense-of-Slavery Yankee never really comes down from a rage, Mickey has always been a good sport. Even in those cases where we might have used… er, intemperate language, Mickey has responded substantively and largely in good humor.

It is in this spirit that I call attention to his latest idiocy. Having already determined that the Senators voting against the “surge” are really pansies, he today links to a item from Pajamas Media declaring the surge a qualified success, as no “major” bombings had occured since February 12. First, it’s worth noting that the bar truly is set rather low when five days without a massacre is defined as a “success”. Second, today’s events should serve as warning to anyone prepared to declare the Surge a “success” after only a week. Indeed, the reaction of the wingnutosphere and of Fox News to five days of relative quiet should serve further to indicate the true point of the Surge, which is more to mollify the domestic allies of the President than to accomplish anything in Iraq. Let’s be as clear as possible; it isn’t pessimism or anti-administration rancor to doubt that an explicitly temporary increase of a fraction of the number of troops necessary to pacify a country the size of Iraq will have a meaningful impact on the insurgency; it’s realism.