MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

From AP:

President Hamid Karzai escaped a rocket attack on the U.S. helicopter carrying him to a provincial capital in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, officials said, in the second apparent attempt to assassinate the U.S.-backed interim leader since he took office in 2001....

The American military said the rocket missed the chopper as it approached a landing zone near Gardez, where Karzai planned to open a school. The helicopter did not touch down and returned the president to Kabul.

No, here's my favorite part, where the spin doctor defines deviancy down:

"The rocket was fired at the helicopter as it was landing, and missed," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Mark McCann said. "The president was not in any imminent danger."

Got that? Having a rocket fired at your helicopter does not constitute "imminent danger." In fact, the danger was so non-"imminent" that he got the hell out of there, just to be sure he wasn't caught in the cross-non-imminence.

New slogan for the Bush campaign: "Karzai, Allawi, Musharraf -- Not Assassinated Yet!"