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Ah, Jonah. Mrs. Goldberg's little boy. Poster child for nepotism.

It's probably a bit risky to declare this amidst an "orange alert," but I think the events of December signal that it's time to declare President Bush's foreign policy a huge success.

Note: I didn't say it's an "unmitigated" success. We haven't found Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The reconstruction of Iraq is incomplete and could go south again. American troops are still dying. North Korea hasn't abandoned its nuke program yet. The Middle East "Road Map" is a still a road to nowhere. And Osama bin Laden is still at large - unless Madeleine Albright is right and he's actually being held in the same warehouse where the U.S. government hid the Ark of the Covenant at the end of the first "Indiana Jones" movie.

But that's only the warmup! Oh, yes, the serious fun doesn't start until you get down to

While recent revelations about links between al-Qaida and Saddam are troubling (a recently discovered memo suggests that Mohammed Atta was trained by Abu Nidal in Baghdad months before 9/11), the real link between 9/11 and Iraq has been based in our newfound resolve. In response to those attacks, America said we're going to take threats seriously again.

Yes, Jonah swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. But the most impressive thing here is the idea that 9/11 is linked to Iraq because we are resolved that it is. Eh, reality, fantasy, what's the difference? Pass it on.