Mark,

The point of view expressed in your last paragraph makes sense within the conceptual framework dictated by the Bush Administration. Yes, if it's really all solely about terrorism, then of course American policy is a logical, inevitable, and proper reaction to events.

But the roots of the neocon doctrine of a new American assertiveness, domination, and hegemony go back over a decade. It's being brutally honest to observe that there's a huge amount of opportunism in the present situation. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 suddenly cleared away the obstacles to implementing this new ideology.

I think that always casting everything as a response to terrorism, dragging out the visage of Osama bin Laden as the boogeyman who justifies every administration policy, is a rhetorical device to discourage open discussion and dissent. The wisdom and longterm merits of Bush's war on Iraq are legitimate topics of discussion. We can't let Bush set and constrain the parameters of debate using the rhetoric of fear.

--Robert