With the first post in this thread I predicted the Western metaphors that were to come. Indeed I am sick of them coming from the administraton but that is who bush is. He may have never been an expert in foreign relations but he was an expert executioner to the point of grinning about it when asked.

The metaphor that has come from within us all, quite naturally, is the "viral infection" we must now overcome.

All evidence point to the fact that Powell and his group was able to convince Rumsfeld and other hawks of the folly of whoesale execution - ergo the new war we must endure.