Okay, time to own up to a certain lassitude since the war has wound down: there's still plenty going on, and in many ways this "war after the war" is more important than the war itself because the outcome seems to be much more in doubt.

But after the frenzy of the lead up to the war, the hanging on to every word and image during the war, people seem to be hung over. Larry Miller has spotted this:

REMEMBER "Short Attention-Span Theater"? I think we're in it, and not on the audience side. I think we're the stars.

I don't believe this is just me, or a third of us, or even half of us. I think it's every American (not counting the fiercest partisans on the left and right, say, ten percent on both sides). What I'm getting at is . . .

Have you found yourself thinking about Iraq these days roughly as much as you think about Afghanistan, which is to say not that much, which is to say, frankly, not at all?

After so much passionate debating, thinking, and maneuvering for so many months, from the supermarkets to the offices to the talk shows, I think most Americans are either taking a breather from the big picture, or have just about had it. I have an image in my head of a stick-thin, all-black-clad writer at the Nation, and a chubby, Brooks Brothers-clad writer at National Review, both getting the latest, daily, thirty-page, small-print, CENTCOM report dropped on their desks, and both shoving it away, muttering, "Oh, Jeez," and then both calling out to the hallway, "Hey, anything new on Laci Peterson?"

....The Middle East is another thing that's hard to get steamed about suddenly, because it seems somehow they're at least doing better, doesn't it? I wasn't a big fan of the roadmap, but, hey, if it's okay with them . . . President Bush is going to Jordan, and the prime minister of Israel has already met with the prime minister of Suicidistan.

By the way, the only reason I made that joke was because each time I want to say something about the new Palestinian prime minister, I have to stop and think of the guy's name, because he has two of them, and it's confusing.

....Two weeks ago, a reporter who strolled into any bar in America and said, "Yeah, I was embedded with the army," could drink for free all night, and have any woman in the place, or at least a good shot at them.

Today, I'll bet you the same guy would be lucky to get an extra bowl of peanuts.

Hell, never mind that. The poor sap would probably find himself drinking with Jayson Blair. [Weekly Standard]