Is it moral, then, to place the Iraqi people in the path of the conflict between the Radical Islamists and the American people? Do you intend that this war is justified on the basis that it casts the battle with Fundamentalists into Iraq?

GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, take me out and put me on the wall. When it comes to my family and their safety, I part with questions of morality. Answer this question yourself when you have children and grand children with a long future ahead of them. This does not mean that we shouldn't choose the least immoral of various immoral solutions and try to balance the immorality with moral acheivements.

No, it only adds credibility to those who predicted that this conflict would end with a protracted savage snarl of Geurilla Warfare. If you think the Islamists seek to save Iran, guess again- they are mainly there to kill Americans, and any Iraqi who gets in the way is not a concern.

Well, ignoring your choice of adjectives, I guess that it adds credibility to Bush, since he said this would be a protracted war. As to their being in Iraq, everyone has to be somewhere.

Maybe it is an opinion, but my evidence for believing my statement is that the UN has thwarted us at every turn, and has made our 'job' in post-war Iraq more difficult, and has done so out of retribution for our behavior. NATO allies have NOT stepped up to the plate to provide even basic assistance, and are doing so out of retribution. France, Germany and etc have accelerated plans for fielding a military force Independent of NATO, have stridently refused to withdraw the construction of a globally-available free military-grade GPS systemn (undermining a key military advantage for US forces) and again, are accelerating or spawning these plans as a deliberate attempt to remove themselves from alliances with the US, who they see as traitorous and arrogant. Furthermore, the opinion of Europeans about americans is lower than at ANY time in history since WWII, and has nosedived since the start of GWII... Causing Anti-Americanism to actually be a PLANK in the platform of aspiring leaders. NATO is dying and we are isolated from the UN. Our traditional 'old europe' allies seek to undermine uis at every turn, while our 'new europe' allies quitly slip away from our side as no WMD materializes. We have detabilized the Anglo-US alliance, and our staunchest Ally is in danger of being voted out of office BECAUSE of this war.

Your "evidence" is mostly anectdotal and opinionated.

The UN has not twarted us at every turn.

Nato is deploying a force in Afghanistan, I believe, and we are stil an integral part of the Balkans thing. Other members of NATO are contributing independently.

France and Germany's plans for beefing up their military may or may not have anything to do with GWII and I have not seen any evidence that they are planning on dissolving any alliances with us. The GPS thing would have gone forward regardless. I doubt that the governments of these countries have an opinion near as emotional as yours and I doubt they want EU to evaporate into a "who likes the US" festival.

The slippage of new Europe support is happening so quietly it is virtually invisible.

Lower opinion of the US is no more than incremental and nothing short of shutting down the government and opening the country to covered wagons would change those opinions.

I will leave the citing of more examples contrary to your opinion to Tom's proclivity for net research, if he believes that those examples would have any effect. You know that the examples are out there and you would promptly dismiss each and every one. (I know you will have a field day with this one)