IRON THIS:

Ex-C.I.A. Aides Say Iraq Leader Helped Agency in 90's Attacks : Under the C.I.A.'s direction, Iyad Allawi ran an exile organization that sent agents into Baghdad in the early 1990's to plant bombs. (JOEL BRINKLEY, 6/09/04, NY Times)

When Dr. Allawi was picked as interim prime minister last week, he said his first priority would be to improve the security situation by stopping bombings and other insurgent attacks in Iraq — an idea several former officials familiar with his past said they found "ironic."

It's ironic in much the same way that fire-bombing Dresden to defeat the oven-working Germans was. That is, it probably seems ironic if you're one of those folks who can't distinguish America from Nazi Germany or a representative Iraq from Saddam Hussein's. For anyone who's forehead isn't bumping their prostate the irony is rather more elusive.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 9, 2004 4:03 PM