Excuse me Tom, Mr. Sanctimonius. You agree with policy and sound bites only because you believe the propaganda, and only because you WANT TO BELIEVE the propaganda. You remark about Bowser:
>"You're talking to someone who has difficulty distinguishing between murder and self-defense in foreign policy matters. " is wrong.
From your high horse, it sounds plausible, but it's wrong.

The US has nominated itself the world cop/bully after 9-11. We have plans to go to war with several countries. We are targeting them as if they are the enemy. We will START conflicts and war where there were none before. We plan on taking on nuclear sleeping giants that have built their defenses as a deterrence.
North Korea? What a mess that will be!
And as we force ourselves around the globe trying to cram our righteous "Christian-based democratic" values and corporate takeover in viable countries, it will create more bitterness, vicious wars, and will drain the economy dry in this country with disrupted trade routes and products and the casualties both here and abroad.
We can't take over a country for it's resources by bombing the sweet fruk out of them, and then expecting their survivors to honor and obey us when we build them a new power plant. Ain't gonna work that way.

>"You know, I would be having a lot more fun with this if I knew you guys would eat a big plate of crow when this all works out okay and Afghanistan ends up a bit bumpy, but a lot better off than it was."

You obviously haven't been reading the smaller newspapers and journals that have carried the REAL stories about what is really happening over there, and the new problems which keep arising.
No military presence needed? Co-operating warlords? What about the Taliban prisoners that Dostrum transported in containers by the hundreds who were left to die and rot before being buried in the desert? What about the American soldiers who gave the orders to shoot into the containers? THAT"s being looking into as a war crime. (Interestingly enough, the company that manufactures those shipping containers was bought out by one of the defense contractors in the Bush administration. Guess they figure they'll need them as "people movers" in the future. Bowser is not that far off in the Nazi thought processes we are adopting.)

And the American soldiers are not allowed to talk to the press at all. They are issued notecards about what they CAN say, and ONLY what they can say.
You cannot Amercanize or Democratize another country that is totally on the other end of the cultural and language spectrum of ours.

>"Anybody remember the tens of thousands of American body bags that were going to come back from the Gulf War?"

No, but seven thousamd of them are now dead because of illnesses contracted over there due to the chemical and biological agents that Hussein hurled at them (manufactured here right in the good ole US of A). Many more and their families and their offspring are STILL sick. Oh, and what about the dead Iraqis and their children? What about the quarter million kids who have died over there because of our purposeful water contamination and embargo on medical supplies?
We are SUCH an exemplary country.......with hearts full of joy and compassion!

>"Do they hate Bush that much that they'd rather see wholesale death than a policy success?"

Although Bush may not be my favorite icon or President or Father-Saviour, it has more to do with being morally outraged as how we plan on "saving the world, saving ourselves".
This new administration is developing ways of conquering the world for it's natural resources (because we CAN) that I find, dangerously lacking in far-sighted economic and political damage, forget "saving face" at some future point in time or a worldwide showdown somewhere by someone who will get sick and tired of our aggression and stand up to us.
THEN, we'll see how well your anal sphincter holds out.

And this line here Tom reveals to me this mass political hysteria you spew forth. Viet Nam was NOT our crowning glory. And North Korea is another disaster in the making with a capital D.
>"This title apparently gets passed to whoever we happen to be planning on fighting. The Viet Cong wore it proudly for years. The baton will probably soon be in the hands of the North Korean military."

Yeah, a million strong. You can't see the people for the bombs, eh?
You can't see the people for the politics?

Rosie the Riveter