Flit

COULDN'T RESIST

I couldn't resist on weighing in on a misinformed history post that Andrew Sullivan was pleased by, on how the D-Day coalition and the Iraq war coalition were one and the same. My remarks (also in the post's comments):

"You really should read your own links. The (partial) order of battle you link to has the 10th Inter-Allied Commando (also known as the Free French Commando), led by Philippe Kieffer, who liberated Ouistreham (their action was also a major part of the movie "The Longest Day," so there's really no excuse there.)

"The same document you're linking to also shows units from Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands, as well as Canada, in case you hadn't noticed.

"So in terms of the D-Day landing partners who also showed up for the Iraq war, you're standing at 3 out of the 8 countries your linked text mentions. Um, what was your point again?"

I added later: "Now, if you factor in 2nd Tactical Air Force (http://www3.sympatico.ca/angels_eight/2tac.html), you get the Australians (who did show up for Iraq), but you also get New Zealand and Czechoslovakia (who didn't). So you're up to 4 out of 11 :-)"

History is a dangerous tool, to the user. It's times like this that remind us that Andrew Sullivan was the guy who wanted Stephen Glass to be the New Republic's head-of-factchecking...

PS: Now if your point is to highlight the precedence of an Anglo-American-Polish coalition, the obvious choice would be Arnhem.