Hasbro GI Joe Captured In Iraq?

When Matt Drudge first linked to this story, I thought the photo looked a little like a Hasbro GI Joe doll (sorry kids–action figure! Those distinctions were vitally important to us when we were nine or ten years old!)

At first I thought, nahh–it’s just a blurry photo. But Drudge now has updated photos on his home page that appear that it is indeed a blurry photo–of a GI Joe doll action figure. And Power Line notes that other important posable plastic icons have gone missing as well…

Update: Jonah Goldberg explores the Connery option as a possible retaliation…

Update: James Taranto writes:

Based on the photos the Drudge Report has uncovered, we’d say this looks like the work of the archterrorist Muhammad al-Sluggo.

Heh. And in a post appropriately titled, “But Seriously, Folks…“, John Hinderaker writes:

The captured toy story could be pretty significant. The terrorists need, more than anything else, to be seen as awesome, terrible figures. If they stop inspiring fear, they are finished. So the one thing they cannot stand is ridicule. I would think that by tomorrow, their pathetic effort to pass a doll off as a captured American soldier will have made them laughingstocks throughout the Arab world.

This doesn’t mean, of course, they they won’t carry off future atrocities, maybe spectacular ones. But, coming on the heels of Iraq’s triumphant election, widespread perception of the terrorists as ineffectual figures of fun could well be another nail in their coffin.

By the way, have they carried off any successful attacks since Sunday’s election? Not that I’m aware of.

Good.