"I submit that the organized anti-war movement was largely a political one, with the objective of wrecking the Bush administration and, for many of the Marxist organizers, the objective of bringing down capitalism, the West, and the usual Marxist targets."

You can submit this until the sun bloats out to the orbit of mars and dies. There is no truth to it.

Tom, your position of unflagging support for this war is reasonable to question on moral and rational grounds, given how events have played out. I find it very curious that you are attributing vendettas and moral faults to the anti-war segment. I will submit to you that this is a clever way of discounting what they have to say so that you don't have to face the substance of some (not all, Tom, but at least some) of their arguments- because within that substance will point to the gullibility and/or irrationality and/or moral fault of the die-hard pro-war Hawk.

Thats what I think.

I also think Tom, and I have told this to you again and again, is that you hide behind straw-men- this is perhaps your only visible intellectual fault. You see the discountables on the left as the ONLY contraposing arguments to your beliefs and moral compass. In that, you find justification for your own. Its the first argument I had with you here on the Zone, and its still something you indulge in.

You should pay less attention to the publicized far left. I try not to pay ANY attention to the publicized far right. I look to folks like you, Buckley and Bennet for intelligent statements of Rightis positions and arguments. You should endeavor to find those folks on the left to test your views against and stop hiding behind straw-men.

With significant respect:
Davin L.