Spinning disaster

On ABCNews tonight, they interviewed Gen. Petraeus about the Samarra mosque bombing today. (Loosely transcripted by me)

"General, so much has been made, and you have emphasized, the need the need for the Iraqis to provide their own security, and they can't protect the holiest of their shrines, what can they protect?"

Petraeus: "Well, they can protect a vast number of locations as they are at this time. There are many more holy shrines...."

(Petraeus: Why aren't you asking about the shrines that didn't blow up today?)

Or perhaps you prefer Tony Snow's particular rose tint. Terrorism is a sign of success. (Video)

MR. SNOW: Well, I think, again -- a couple of things. It does fit a pattern that we see throughout the region, which is that when you see things moving towards success, or when you see signs of success, that there are acts of violence. We saw that, certainly -- we've seen that in Lebanon, once again, today, tragically. We also saw it earlier in Lebanon. We have seen it on a number of occasions where, when Israel and the Palestinians seem to be getting close to a deal, there are kidnapings and acts of violence.

Well, Tony, judging from the State Department's reports, there's a rapidly increasing number of successes around the world, and Iraq is literally exploding with successes every day.