So I’m not a good conservative unless I think the the most important task facing our nation, and the most pressing duty of our armed forces, is sorting out the affairs of a fifth-rate Arab despotism? ~John Derbyshire, The Corner (in response to an irate “conservative” reader)

I applaud the description of the mission in Iraq, but apparently Mr. Derbyshire didn’t get the party memo some time ago informing him about the correct view he ought to have on the war. Surely he must have realised by now that the prevailing opinion among “conservatives” (including at National Review!) is exactly that: you cannot really be a good conservative unless you march in lockstep on Iraq (or keep quiet if you disagree). Frum wrote the rest of us out of conservatism (and out of being good Americans!) for that very thing. If he ever gets tired of being berated by such “conservatives” for his common sense and principles, he might make his occasional articles for The American Conservative a regular feature.