Today the Washington Post did the unthinkable - they published not one, but TWO op-eds criticizing the Georgians for the little war with the Russians they've been fighting over the past week. The op-eds make a very important point - that virtually none of the media coverage has focused on Georgia's seemingly unprovoked incursion into South Ossetia as a move intended to provoke the Russians.
Has the consistently anti-Russia Post suddenly gone soft? Did a crafty Russian agent make an op-ed switch as the paper went to press? Is it Opposite Day? Maybe, but since it's August and this is Washington, we're guessing that editorial page deputy Jackson Diehl is on a well-deserved vacay after a tough year of shilling for Colombia and the Venezuelan opposition. Sure, his boss Fred Hiatt may still be around to make sure the editorial page doesn't swing too far from hard right to a little less hard right, but when it comes to foreign policy editorializing, it's well-known that Hiatt is the Medvedev to Diehl's Putin. (We hear that Diehl is vacationing in beautiful Colombia, and the Colombians even offered to re-enact their July hostage rescue for him so he could feel the rush of violating the Geneva Conventions.)
We all know what Diehl's absence means, right? Submit. Op-eds. Now. The Post's op-ed page is liberated territory, if only for a week or two, and we've got to write like we've finally gotten rid of an evil tyrant who has ruled over us with a hard fist and too many terrible opinions to count. Hell, we'll even give our short-lived liberation a classy name, like the "Fuchsia Revolution" or something. When Diehl makes his inevitable return and pummels us with more of us inane war-mongering, we'll bravely stand outside the Post's headquarters wearing bright t-shirts, waving our neon-colored flags and holding signs that say things like "Down with Diehl!," "You're Wack, Jack(son)!" and "What Liberal Media?"
Freedom reads so well, doesn't it?
