“THE ALLIES GOT IT SO RIGHT,” writes John Keegan, “How did the pundits get it so wrong?”

Yet perfectly sensible people, who surely know better, clutter up their minds with such irrelevant factors as “the Arab street”, “international opinion”, the anti-war movement at home, votes in the UN and so on. They then predict that “American success is not certain”, “this could be a long and bitter war” and “the spectre of Vietnam looms over George W Bush”.

If they were employed by the City editor, or the sports desk, they would have been given their cards three wars ago.

Yes, but there are standards in sportswriting. I have some related comments over at GlennReynolds.com.