Objective: Make Andrew Sullivan look like the fool he is. Mission Accomplished.

Today on his weblog, Andrew Sullivan wrote that:

Bush was dumb to have put that banner up (and dumber to say it had nothing to do with him). But if he was wrong, how wrong was Madeleine Albright, who trumpeted "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq in ... 1998!

He then added: huh, huh, huh. Well, not really, but that's besides the point entirely. There is a world of difference between what Albright said and Bush's top-gun hackwork. Albright was secretary of state, not the President and she was talking on a Sunday morning talk show, not on all the major networks (and cable news new stations) at once. Most importantly, Albright's claim was much more limited than Bush's. Here is what she said:

"Saddam Hussein is weaker because all the targets and things that he
cares about most have been destroyed....and the region is safer
because we have managed, I think to, degrade his ability to threaten
his neighbors,"

Madeline Albright probably was right about this or at the very least, not demonstratably wrong. Bush on the other hand, announced that major combat operations in Iraq were over, which is clearly not true. I wonder if Mr. Sullivan ever gets tired of being such a dumb bastard all the time. Huh, huh, huh.