SO I PUT UP A POST on why I think an Iraqi civil war would be bad, but is unlikely, and Bradford Plumer at the Mother Jones blog accuses me of happily “daydreaming about a possible Sunni-Shiite civil war in Iraq.”

Well no, not like the MoJo folks daydream about worker control of the means of production. More like, you know, speculating on what could happen if things went wrong (hint: where I say that a civil war would be “very bad,” that’s because I think it would, you know, be very bad).

But, to be fair, the post does open: “Okay, this is going to get shrill.” We were warned!

UPDATE: Plumer has posted a very handsome apology. My point on the “brought it on themselves” quote (and the original point by Westhawk, whom I was quoting, I think) was that the Arab world would see the Sunnis as having brought things upon themselves, vitiating Al Qaeda efforts to start a larger conflagration. I thought that was clear, but just in case, well, now it is.