Sic transit gloria blogdomi.

James Lileks is irked [scroll down to "Finally"] by Salam Pax' tone of sneering condescension in his open letter to Bush in the Guardian. There's been some righteous indignation following the publication of the letter and much linkage of Lileks' enjoyable mini-screed, usually prefaced by the phrase "I never liked Salam Pax". My lone comment: what did you expect, exactly? Reading his blog ("dearRaed"--no, I'm not linking to it, because I think he's a pissant) during the war I garnered the distinct impression he was personally pretty well insulated against his government, and therefore in all likelihood at least slightly connected to the Ba'ath party. Is it any real surprise he wouldn't be overjoyed by the overthrow of a regime from whose murderous policies he was apparently benefitting? And was anybody but the anti-war crowd taking him seriously prior to the publication of this letter? Because I'm getting a distinctly hurt tone out of the warblogger commentary on the issue, and I'm at a loss to figure out why.