Bill Keller and Co. continue to sell an unpopular war, but with some heart; plus Eagleton and Amis Revisited

Today's lead article in the New York Times is not, we must stress, a whitewash. It does, of course, give Iraq War apologists something to point to and say: "See, we told you it would take time, but we've really been doing the right thing all along." But as Voices in the Wilderness's Jeff Guntzel points out in two different places, such stories, while desperately important, usually end up telling only half of the story.

In a crucial piece for the Guardian, Ronan Bennett has added to the scarce debate surrounding the row between University of Manchester's own Terry Eagleton and its recent appointment, Martin Amis. In it, he takes to task those in the British media who have trivialized the indirect exchange between Eagleton and Amis, presenting it as merely a "spat" between two well-known figures with incommensurable politics, rather than as a troublesome reflection of issues surrounding race, immigration, religion, and terrorism in the UK. Bennett laments the fact that Amis seems to have gotten off the hook regarding his thoroughly racist remarks and subsequently inadequate and deeply suspect attempts at explaining himself. We're still with Terry on this one, and Bennett does us the service of explaining exactly why we ought to be.