Fred Hiatt's dumptruck disgorges another load:

Senior officials now think the United States is on the way to defeating al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Words fail me.

No, they really do.

But at last we've got a definition of victory!

Defeating:

1. An enemy that didn't exist before we started the war we're "on the way" to defeating them in--assuming they aren't just a disinfomration campaign by the White House, of course (Exhibit A: The WHIG and WMDs);

2. An enemy that hasn't caused most of our casualties.

The mind reels.

Still, who reads David Ignatius, anyhow? Well, way too many people (PDF), but he's Serious, and a Centrist, and therefore totally ineffectual except insofar as he helps Bush carry out his thoughtfully, prayerfully, carefully crafted Theory Of We Get To Do Whatever The Fuck We Want, and especially Iraq 4-Eva!

NOTE Leaving aside the fact that if AQI didn't exist, the Weekly Standard and its evil spawn, the Kagans, would have had to invent it..