How You Can Tell That You Have Been Hanging Around The Whitehouse Too Long

There is an interesting quesion posed at the top of today's press briefing with Tony the Snow job.

Usually Tony's pretty good a artfully producing good spin, but I suggest that maybe he's been hanging around the President too long. Have a look at his reply and see if you agree with me:

Q As you look at this, the month-long war in the Mideast, who won?

MR. SNOW: I'm not sure -- right now what's won is diplomacy has won. There has been an attempt to make effective U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, which called for the abolition of militias in the southern part of Lebanon, and also -- by the way, that would include Hezbollah or any other militias -- and also the cessation of attempts to arm such militias from abroad. That is now the focus of efforts by the United States, the United Nations, the international community.

At this point, we are hoping that the people of Lebanon will be the ultimate victors because they'll be able to have a government in which the democratic will of the people is expressed through the policies of that government, and they don't have to be worrying about Hezbollah having its own independent foreign policy or the ability to try to wage war and engage neighboring states.

Now, the personification of the term "diplomacy" is a neat little Rovian trick. A better question might be, who has lost? I would argue that all parties involved have lost to some degree. Certainly, there are others who believe they have won over "diplomacy:"

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said Monday that his guerrillas achieved a "strategic, historic victory" against Israel — a declaration that prompted celebratory gunfire across the Lebanese capital

Ah, what's a good victory celebration with out some shells raining down on the tarmac and bullets randomly landing on various heads.