It might be accurate criticism to say that your daughter looks like hell in her prom dress. Or that your friend isn't very skilled at his favorite hobby.

But someone saying so would reveal severe lack of judgment, and more important, an innate hostility that is the real issue here. My analogy to the wife beater is a precise one.

Nobody is stupid enough to believe that all these leaks are intended to improve the ability to fight a war on terror, or the war in Iraq. The critical report itself, classified as it was and delivered only to the intended recipients, would, as it was designed to, accomplish that.

Leaking it to the general public can have only one goal: damaging the administration and/or the war effort for political ends.

Nobody is kidding anyone here, and the sooner everyone stops trying to paint noble motives on what is basically a destructive act, the better.