I’m not a big fan of Slate’s trademark “everything you know is wrong” pieces, but Will Saletan’s article on how conservatives have failed to apply the lessons of welfare reform to Iraq is very clever:

[A]nti-communism abroad was only one of Reagan’s theories. Another was anti-socialism at home. A government that spends tens of billions of dollars to prop up able-bodied people, year after year with no deadline for self-sufficiency, breeds dependency. That’s what Bush has done in Iraq: He has made it the largest, most counterproductive welfare program in American history. Talk about leading your party astray.