Sorry, folks -- a combination of lack of time and the whirlwind of the recent events have contributed to a lack of will to blog.

We're not gone.

My only surprise is that it didn't happen sooner. I'm speaking, of course, of the discovery of two old chemical munitions in Iraq.

Strictly speaking, it's hard to refer to these items -- two old artillery shells likely found in a dump somewhere -- as Weapons of Mass Destruction. By all accounts, they're a pair of old, rusting relics of the Iran-Iraq War: barely functional, surely more dangerous to the user than the victim, and beyond the high explosive used in the warhead, hardly capable of inflicting mass casualties. Still, it's hardly surprising to find President Bush's supporters, who have received literally no good news for months, latching on to this find like a life preserver, despite the fact that doing so will once again re-open just how badly Bush misled America on the threat Iraq posed.

So, do these two items "count" as vindicating Bush's warnings? Well, I suppose that depends upon where you think the bar should be. Bush, after all, warned of hundreds of tons of chemical and biological stockpiled and ready to use. I'm unable to find in those warnings the dire prediction that a few largely useless stray artifacts from two decades ago were pointed in our direction.

Still, some will refer to this find as "the weapons of mass destruction". So I guess the question we have to ask is, "were two artillery shells filled with hazardous material worth over 750 American lives and $200 billion?"

That's a question each of us will have to answer. I would imagine the wingnuts will come to one conclusion, and the families of the dead will come to another.