"I will grant that a lot of their terrorist connections with either Al Quaeda and/or Saddam are on the say-so of the Kurds, so I guess you have to take that or leave it. "

But we fought a war off of this 'evidence'. Don't you think thats absurd? If its take-it-or-leave it, even now after we have our guys on the ground and our eyeballs on the scene, what does this say about our reasoning process walking into this?

"There is no evidence that rules it out either"

Thats how things work. There is no direct evidence that that rules out a party of star-pixies and solar-yetis dancing in a big party at the center of our sun. I defy you: show me the proof.

"and it would be awfully convenient for Saddam to have such a presence in the North. Further evidence one way or the other is probably forthcoming as information is dug up at these camps. "

Okay, wait a second. We use this justification to fight a war, and then we say that we must wait until we win the war and occupy the camps to see if there is any truth to the justification.

So if you bought the terrorist links as justification for war, then I think you either
1) Were lied to and believed it without doing your homework
2) Didn't buy it on a rational level, but used it as cover for your *emotional* support for this war.
3) Didn't buy it, but had other 'rational' basis for this war..

Do if three obtains here, and if the other reasons were/included WMD, then you better keep your fingers crossed that we find them.

Also, while I did indeed buy that Iraq had WMD (although I disputed it as a just cause for war), isn't it intersting that we are still digging for "facts" to certify/support that particular justification for this war? Again, with our boots on the ground and our eyes on the scene, and we have no more physical proof of our allegations than we did going into this war.

All I'm asking for is that you think it through....

back in the communist scare, a lot of reasonable right-thinking americans just sort-of went along and trusted that the government and the media had their best interests, and the truth, as an aim. A lot of americans were burned. Intelligent, good-willed people have been duped , all throughout history, into doing immoral and unjustified things. We wouldn't be the first generation... And I doubt we are the last.

"and it would be awfully convenient for Saddam to have such a presence in the North. "

What presence?

Davin L.