RAMESH PONNURU on the panic of the hawks:

How much the impact of Abu Ghraib hurts the mission in Iraq, and elsewhere in the region, remains to be seen, but there are some reasons for thinking that we may be overestimating that impact. The chief source of justified alarm that I can see is the panic itself: the possibility that it will lead to dumb moves in Washington.

Yes, I’m not sure why a lot of people people are suddenly panicking either, except perhaps that months of slanted news may have had a cumulative effect, somehow breaking down people’s resistance. Things actually seem to be going better than anyone would have expected a month ago: As Andrew Sullivan notes, the isolation of Sadr looks to have been handled rather shrewdly, as is the military response. And the turnover of sovereignty, as Patrick Belton notes below, seems to be going well, too.

It’s a war, people, which means good news and bad news — and no single piece of news tends to mean nearly as much as it seems to at the moment.

UPDATE: Bryan Preston says he’s not depressed by what’s going on abroad, but by treasonous opportunism at home.