All fun and games at The Daily Show

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is of course partisan potshotting -- not so much funny as validating -- with occasional actual comedy material, and not serious military analysis. But one wishes the writers and host would either show some humility in the area of military matters or else take the few minutes required to study the issue before taking their smarmy, obnoxious, ignorant, and unfunny two cents' worth to the air.

On the February 15 show, scorn was heaped on the Administration for its long-overdue statements that Iran has been supplying arms and more to Iraqi insurgents, especially the Shiite militias. The story of Iranian sponsorship of the troubles in Iraq, and particularly Iran's supplying of advanced military-grade roadside bombs, is a year and a half old; I wrote about it five months ago and thought it was a little behind the curve then. (Paragraphs 10, 11, and 12. See also this MSNBC story from 2005.)

This is a very serious business. The bombs in question, called shaped charges, can penetrate American tank armor. They have killed 170+ American soldiers who would have been safe against lesser weaponry. They are not the sort of thing rag-tag, ne'er-do-well, part-time militiamen can throw together with some hardware supplies. And they bear the demarcations of official Iranian armament factories and have actually been intercepted en route to Iraq from Iran.

The leader of the dominant Shiite militia, Muqtada al-Sadr, has in the past few days fled the current American offensive, to Iran's capitol, and yet the oh-so-clever Daily Show folks evidently believe the Iranian government would have had nothing to do with arming his militia.

This is not some political game, or frivolous late-night comedy fodder. The Daily Show is in far over its head here. Iran is fighting a declared albeit low-intensity war against America, and working towards worse. Surely the jokes can be found elsewhere.