One of the funniest things Gnomon has read lately is the outraged press coverage of President Bush's Medal of Freedom awards yesterday. He bestowed them on three men who played a major part in his Iraq policy, you see.

Former CIA Director George Tenet, Major Tommy Franks, and Iraq Interim Administrator Paul Bremer had barely donned their medals before the Sydney Morning Herald proclaimed "Bush Honours Three Who Failed!"

"That's right," fellow Aussie paper The Age agreed. These are actually "Shining Medals for Tarnished War Architects."

Newsday proclaimed that, far from being "three men [who] symbolize the nobility of public service" as Mr. Bush declared, Tenet, Franks, and Bremer were actually three Dickensesque ghosts that dolorously haunt the President.

The New York Times was admirably restrained, but couldn't help quoting a Rhode Island Senator who grumbled that President Bush was "still trying to put a good face on serious mistakes." Or comparing this ceremony to LBJ giving the medal to his Viet-Nam War architects.

Denver's Rocky Mountain News could understand honoring Tommy Franks and Paul Bremer -- but Tenet????

This last view is perhaps closest to our own: Mr. Tenet (and the entire intelligence community) could have served the President better. Yet he and they did no worse than the rest of the world's intelligence services -- not to mention much of the media.

We also agree that post-war planning could have been much better. Our own "catastrophic success" (to use the President's colorful term) is partly to blame for that, not to mention uncooperative allies like Turkey who could have done a lot to get troops where they were needed, but didn't.

But all three men have a long record of serving America admirably, sometimes at great risk to themselves. Presidents can grant the Medal of Freedom to whomever they choose, and they do -- with great abandon. These men deserve it far more than some, and the entertaining apoplexy their awards generated in some media quarters is worth the price of admission.