tom wrote: "If you show a set of facts to a hundred people and most of them come to the same conclusion, you cannot pull one person out of that crowd and claim that he is somehow stupider or more crooked than the rest of them for coming to an identical conclusion."

But this is not the case at hand. The same facts were not shown to everyone! The Bush administration had access to intelligence sources that NOBODY ELSE HAS ACCESS TO, and reported that there was 'conclusive absolute evidence' that Saddam had WMD and terrorist ties. Other folks subject to this reporting are going to feel that its very convincing. Not being able to look out the window, its unlikely they are going to claim that "the sun is shining" is patently false- rather they will trust the fellow who can look out the window.

And the BIG POINT IS: they should have known, had the resources TO know, were the ones advocating war. Its their responsibility to be right. Its not just one or two claims, tom, its EVERY claim so far has turned out to be false.

And your universal statement is a little short of being universally true. We have been through that.

And then the best it is, then, is STILL a mommy-they-did-it-too argument.

If only an idiot or a liar would have come up with this answer

No tom, its nto that only an idiot or a liar would come up with this answer, only that an idiot or liar would claim conclusive evidence, known fact and be 100% wrong.

tom wrote:"you would have to submit that the U.N., European leaders, most of our Congress, and the Clinton administration were and are all either liars or idiots or both. .
"

Even if I believe this- which I don't, how is this not a mommy-they-did-it-too argument?

Tom: I challenge you- I dare you! Find statements from
Putin, Chirac, Shroeder saying
"we know for a fact Iraq has WMD and terrorist ties"

I challenge you.