Wichita–

I understand your statement, though I don’t agree that the case for war was “weak,” insofar as our level of tolerance for well-armed ME dictators has fallen precipitously since 9/11. I would point out to your Democrat friends that by fighting in Iraq we have disarmed not only Saddam, but also Libya–which did almost have nuclear weapons. (I don’t think we’ll being hearing much out of Boy Assad for a while, either.)

The trouble is logical consistency on foreign policy is absent across the entire left side of the spectrum. A unilateral war in Bosnia is hunky-dory, a multilateral one in Iraq is not. A humanitarian war in Somalia is fine, one in Iraq is not.

I really think it comes down to the difference between an “antiseptic” war (Kosovo, Gulf I, Grenada) and a messy one (Vietnam, Gulf II). If we aren’t prepared to go to war, why do we have a military? If we do got to war, do we expect some of our guys (and not a few civilians) to die horrible deaths as a result?

After 25 years without protracted conflict, we were slow to awake in this country. I think most Republicans heard the alarm and got out of bed. I think most Democrats have hit the snooze button. Twice.