The Council Has Spoken!

Two themes are prominent this week.  The failures of the Bush Administration and the Republicans to do what they said they would do and the difficulty we have had identifying who the real enemy is.  Among the Council posts, Callimachus at Done With Mirrors won with a post, White House Rules, that asks some pregnant questions and makes some pointed statements:

We'd reached a point where patience was required in Iraq, and I was willing to give it patience. But Iraq was supposed to be a campaign in the wider war, not the whole thing. Where is the rest of it? Where is the serious, sustained, thoughtful effort to explain ourselves to the world? Where's the push to get Osama? Afghanistan is backsliding into Taliban and al-Qaida control. Where is the awareness that dependence on oil is the root of all this mess.

Dr. Sanity took second place with her post on CDS - CHRISTIANITY DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, a variant of BDS, in which she tries to explain to the sufferers of CDS that we don't yet live in a Christian Theocracy and there is no evidence that we will be living in one anytime soon; sadly unless such interpretations are accompanied by powerful anti-psychotic medications, the delusions are likely to be untouched in the poor victims of CDS.

Among non-Council posts, the winning effort was by David Frum writing at Cato Unbound, Republicans and the Flight of Opportunity, in which he laments the passing from the scene of small government conservatism.  There were two posts tied for second place.  One is an attempt by Confederate Yankee in Recalling the Twelfth Imam to explain why a nuclear Iran would be catastrophic.  His post is smart, logical, well explained, and unlikely to persuade anyone who thinks the bigger danger is the Bush White House.  The other post is a column by Dennis Prager at Townhall.com, which explains quite clearly why The war we are fighting needs a more accurate name.

As always, the full list of nominees can be found at The Watcher of Weasels and all the posts will reward your time and effort.