The Martians are among us--at least in Charles Krauthammer's head. The commentator wrote a column in the Washington Post yesterday criticizing Democratic efforts in congress to refocus our military efforts on Afghanistan. Completely wrongheaded, said Krauthammer. The point of his article was that the "real war" is in Iraq, because of its strategic geographic location, because of its oil reserves, and because that's where the terrorists are. To back up this line of reasoning, he imagined consulting a Martian visitor, who had come to this planet as an impartial observer. Clearly, he said, the Martian would recognize the greater strategic importance of Iraq, and the insignificance of our growing failures in Afghanistan. In other words, according to this little thought experiment, a completely objective observer would see things exactly the way that Krauthammer does. The problem is, having conjured up this hypothetical martian, he failed to ask him the right questions.
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