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Lots of people are quoting Michael Kinsley in yesterday’s Slate article, Unauthorized entry. I’m quoting him, too, to highlight two particularly meaningful summarizations within.

Pointing out the logical inconsistency of the following reason to attack Iraq, as paraphrased here by Kinsley, has changed the minds of some of my formerly war-leaning friends — and caused others to call timeout, and put one in an infinite loop —

[Bush, paraphrased]: I am ignoring the wishes of the Security Council and violating the U.N. Charter in order to enforce a U.N. Security Council resolution.

I’ve never seen a better one-paragraph summary of The Bush Doctrine and its implications:

Bush is asserting the right of the United States to attack any country that may be a threat to it in five years. And the right of the United States to evaluate that risk and respond in its sole discretion. And the right of the president to make that decision on behalf of the United States in his sole discretion. In short, the president can start a war against anyone at any time, and no one has the right to stop him. And presumably other nations and future presidents have that same right. All formal constraints on war-making are officially defunct.

This is why this present course will reap the whirlwind:
We have declared open season on everyone. For everyone.

(For more on The Bush Doctrine and its implications, see Wendell Berry’s excellent A Citizen’s Response to the National Security Strategy of the United States of America.)

[via Aardvark]