Much of what you say is true, Doug. In the instances you cite, the U. S. government did assume it was the right thing to do—at the time (although one of the things that ticked the Afghanis off was that the U. S. made them a lot of promises, then when the Russians left we dropped 'em like a dirty shirt). But right now, I can't see that Iraq, Iran, and North Korea are all that much of a danger to us. We still have the world's largest arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, and should any or all three of them attack us, they could never hope to prevail in a conventional war—and if they used WMDs, we have the military power and more than enough WMDs, by several orders of magnitude, to reduce all three countries to barren plains. Genuine threat? I don't think so. And I don't think George W. Bush thinks so either.

About that terrorist rowing up the river of your choice with a nuclear device stowed in his skiff (be he Saudi, Iraqi, or whatever):— Nobody can guarantee that it won't happen. But one thing I pretty well can guarantee: if the United States initiates hostilities against Iraq (or Iran, or North Korea), someone out there is sure as hell going to give it some serious thought.

And that's a strictly non-partisan observation.

Don Firth