the original piece: "The difference between the current administration and its conservative forebears is that facts don't seem to matter at all. They don't even matter enough to reinterpret. Bush doesn't read the papers or watch the news, and Condoleezza Rice, his national security advisor, reportedly didn't read the National Intelligence Estimate, which is apparently why she missed the remarks casting doubt on claims that Iraq was trying to acquire uranium from Africa. (She reportedly read the document later.)"

Its hard not to connect at least that point with the campagn to go to war.

As I said, your claim that 70% of all Iraqis want us there is dubious at best. I checked your links, the only one that had any numbers on Iraq in it was the Zogby poll, and even you are backpedaling on that one

Of course, if you had read the original piece instead of jerking your knee out of joint you would have seen this as one of the prime points:

"A more sinister aspect to this presidency's cavalier attitude toward facts is its effort to bend, twist and distort them when it apparently serves the administration's interests. Intelligence was exaggerated to justify the war in Iraq. Even if there were no evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or of ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, the CIA was expected to substantiate the accusations."

So you selected what you wanted to reply to, made up/'creatively interpreted' numbers to support your case from poll data that you don't have. How wxacty were you right in objecting to my criticism?

Tom wrote:"Supposedly, people like me are too stupid to see the "truth.""

I never said you said that. Nobody here said you said that. Do you think you are actually going to win points by attributing insults to me that I never made? Do you think I am dumb enough to let you get away with that? Try again. Smearing Feces on yourself does not mean the other side threw them at you.

Tom wrote: "Something that should be kept in mind: under Saddam, Baghdad was a favored city, with preferential access to utilities, supplies, and other resources. The middle class of Baghdad probably did quite well compared to those in the outskirts being shoveled into mass graves. So Baghdad has probably come down in the world a bit, and I'm sure the polls reflect this. One would naturally get a much higher opinion of Americans from a Kurd, a Shiite, or a Marsh Arab than one would from a person who was a computer manager under Saddam's regime and now can't get electricity when he needs it.
"

So you SUSPECT something and you state it as fact. Baghdad was also the throne of the old lizards power, and the location of his evil political machine, so one coulod argue that life in baghdad was probably WORSE for all but the thin margin of the power elite.

Davin L.