I think your criticism of Jon Ward would hold more water if you had waited to get in touch with Michael Hastings before attributing "defeatist" views to a fellow whose brother is himself in the military, or if you yourself had not gone to such length refrain from answering the criticisms I made against that argument of yours on Vanity Fair's website. Insomuch as that my piece was linked to and excerpted by such people as Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Greenwald and sent to you and others at your magazine, one might think that it merited a response. Likewise, Stanley Kurtz never responded when I offered to let him look at the chapter of my upcoming book in which I show his piece on gay marriage in Scandinavia to be ridiculous. I can't think of a good reason why any journalist or commentator should bother waiting around for someone at National Review to respond to an e-mail.