The U.S. Senate is today releasing a report entitled "Tora Bora Revisited: How We Failed to Get Bin Laden and Why It Matters Today," which — if I'm not mistaken — is a kind of modern retelling of Evelyn Waugh's classic "Brideshead Revisted."

Except instead of dealing with "the unmerited and unilateral act of love by which God continually calls souls to Himself," it's more about how former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld let Osama bin Laden slip away from U.S. troops way back in 2001…

It points the finger directly at Rumsfeld for turning down requests for reinforcements as Bin Laden was trapped in December 2001 in caves and tunnels in a mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan known as Tora Bora.

"The vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the marine corps and the army, was kept on the sidelines," the report says. "Instead, the US command chose to rely on airstrikes and untrained Afghan militias to attack Bin Laden and on Pakistan's loosely organized Frontier Corps to seal his escape routes."…

[T]he report — commissioned by Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — says Bin Laden expected to die and had even written a will. But the Al-Qaeda leader would live to fight another day."

From what I understand, they're hoping to get Colin Firth to play Bin Laden in the film version.

You know, so they can capture the terrorist's roguish good looks and recapture some of their "Bridget Jones' Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq" audience.

First, Farrah Fawcett. Then, Michael Jackson. And then, that guy with the beard who yells on TV. Now, Robert McNamara. When will it end?

Robert Strange McNamara, the former secretary of defense whose record as a leading executive of industry and a chieftain of foreign financial aid was all but erased from public memory by his reputation as the primary architect of U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam, died early this morning at age 93…

McNamara was secretary of defense during the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson. In that capacity he directed a U.S. military buildup in Southeast Asia during the critical early years of a Vietnamese conflict that escalated into one of the most divisive and bitter wars in U.S. history. When the war was over, 58,000 Americans were dead and the national social fabric had been torn asunder.

Alright. It's not Thriller. But it's a legacy of sorts.

When you get a chance, you should rent the Errol Morris documentary about McNamara, The Fog of War. It's waaaay more engaging than any two hours of watching an old man stare into a camera and talk should ever be.

Developing…

Well, Barack Obama just gave his (by my count) 413th press conference since being elected as the next president. This time around, it was to introduce his national security team.

The rundown goes like this…

* Attorney General: Eric Holder – AKA black guy with moustache

* National Security Advisor: Gen. James L. Jones – AKA clean-cut, avuncular white guy

* Secretary of Homeland Security: Janey Napolitano – AKA Hobbit woman

* Secretary of Defense: Robert Gates – AKA token Republican

* Ambassador to the United Nations: Susan Rice – AKA pixie woman

And, of course, the big surprise was his choice for Secretary of State: Hillary Clinton. Wow! What a shocker! I never, ever in a billion years would have guessed that one. Amazing, how they managed to keep a lid on that choice for all these weeks, with no leaks to the press or anything!

Man, you'd think a choice like Hillary Clinton would have dominated the news cycle for the past three weeks, rendering the actual announcement as little more than a boring bit of extra news that just gets stuck at the end of a really not all that funny post that most people probably aren't even going to read till the end.

Yep. Exciting news.

* Pulling out of the running for Director of the CIA must be torture for John Brennan.

* Secretary of Defense Robert Gates only known American to keep job through the year.

* AIG isn't blowing money like it's coke. AIG is still blowing money like it's coke.

* Assumption confirmed: Republicans like assholes.

* GOP ad man went out of his way to avoid racism in anti-Obama ads. How racist!

* Michael Bloomberg sticking around this shithole we call New York City after all.

* Wanna hear a good one? McCain 2012.