Leaving aside any discussion of the Scott Thomas incident -- I don't know the truth of it -- Bill Kristol's column is typically egregious and disgusting. Anyone who knows anyone who works at TNR -- as Kristol does -- knows that its editors and writers, all of them, have absolutely no antipathy toward U.S. troops. None. I remember TNR book/CD/DVD drives for troops in Iraq. Regardless of what the investigation of Thomas determines, not a single TNR editor has any desire or motivation to portray the U.S. military as peopled by a band of marauding William Calleys. Kristol knows this extremely well.

Whatever disagreements I've had with Frank, I know from experience that he does not assign, approve or edit stories to cast aspersions on the military. Even subconsciously, he would not express any eagerness to publish Thomas's story for anything remotely approaching that reason. Kristol is wrapping himself in the mantle of people much braver and nobler than himself (and myself) to disguise his enormous strategic misjudgment. He's crying a river of crocodile tears. And he knows that the motives he's ascribed to TNR's editors are complete bullshit.