George W. Bush’s prized possession from the Iraq war–is an empty gun?

The NYT gives us (for once) a winky-free news feature, without those clever parentheticals in the headline (or are there?) about this sobering totem: The Delta Force guys who forced Saddam from his spider hole in December 2003 found his 9 mm Glock. (Presumably it was his, and not some other gopher’s.) They gave it to Bush. And Hardy-har-har, Chief, it was unloaded.

No buwwets?! You can just see Yosemite George hopping from foot to foot with tomato-faced glee. Oooooh, the irony!

But wait, is it ironic because Sadaam was helpless, hiding in a hole? Or because we are, and the real bad guy is getting away? (No, not the cat with the long goatee and the YouTube press releases.)

Two days before our recent gun-powder orgy over the Hudson, came news that Saddam, after his capture, told the FBI he was more afraid of Iran than he was of the US.(Hey, same here…I think.) Saddam figured if he showed the US he had disarmed, Iran would know his weaknesses and pow, baby, right in the kisser. Our own understanding of Iraq in 2003, said an FBI agent, was "cartoonish."

Really? A $686 billion war, with 4,321 dead Americans and 655,000 dead Iraqis. And on the wall of the future Bush library, an empty gun in a Wal-Mart frame and faux marble matting? A cartoon?

That sounds about right, folks.