Four-year marks

Pundits leave no milestone unturned, especially one that’s a political millstone, like last week’s fourth anniversary of the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Between rerun clips of Operation Rosy Prediction (Donald Rumsfeld: “ ... could be six days, six weeks.... I doubt six months....”) and a midweek presidential plea for Operation Infinite Patience, cartoonists undertook Operation Snarky Rejoinders. Most commentary, like Chan Lowe’s, fell somewhere in the tight niche between bleakly grim and darkly somber. But Nick Anderson exposed below-the-Beltway opposition tactics, and Ed Stein, ever the optimist, offered a long-term anti-terror solution! By the way, a quick etiquette check reveals that, in addition to Mike Thompson’s linen and flowers, fruit is apropos at the four-year mark. To cartoonists, that can only mean -- rotten tomatoes.