After delivering the same speech for the 3,584th time today, apparently believing this time will do the trick and convince everyone Iraq is a great idea executed flawlessly and roaring toward success, it's clear that the Bush White House loves propaganda. No matter how weird the policy, there's a psychosemantically correct propaganda blitz all ready for it. (Remember the megahyped tour around the country to promote dismantling Social Security?)

So it should come as little surprise that the Pentagon is using its unfettered power in Iraq to cut out the middleman and inject a little propaganda of its own into the media we so famously "freed" 2 1/2 years ago.

The twist seems to be that we're paying the Iraq media to run our propaganda, as opposed to just forcing them to. Propaganda with a profit motive -- now that's the sort of progress even a Republican can appreciate.