Who could have guessed that a chat between the Arab world’s leading news channel and one of the architects of the Iraq war might turn contentious? Here’s Rumsfeld with the “irascible grandpa” meter turned up to 11, to the point where I half-expected him to take off his coat and start doing one-armed pushups Palance-style. In a way, it’s reassuring: So thoroughly has Al Jazeera mastered the western cable-news idiom that they’re even showcasing O’Reilly-esque shoutfest interviews. (The clip was posted to YouTube by the network itself, not a viewer.) On the other hand, this comes perilously close at times to lapsing into some sort of troop-levels version of “who’s on first.” More yelling, less shtick!