I too wish the entire Iraqi episode had unfolded differently. I wish the Pres had said prior to the war, "We don't know about Iraqi WMD, but we're going into Iraq to end the murderous rampage of an insane dictator, and to begin the process of ending all tyranny in the Middle East, because on 9/11 Middle Eastern tyranny showed us its true will."

I don't know how much support he would have gotten, though.

Or, I wish that we'd found piles of Iraqi WMD, all postmarked for bin Laden's Afghani cave.

However, we are where we are, and no matter what one thought of the war itself, I think it's clear that the present mission of US forces in Iraq is an important one, and probably a just one as well. They are struggling to bring freedom, democracy and peace to a nation--and a region--which knows all too little of those things. They are fighting to defeat a band of killers who are not only loyal to Sadaam, but loyal also to oppression, to torture, to death and destruction. These thugs don't give a whit for the well-being of Iraqis.

On 9/11, America was touched by Mid-East tyranny. Horrible as it was, it was barely a scratch compared to what that tyranny could do to us, if it so chooses. These dictatorships have long used the US as a grand scapegoat for all the ills of their people; they've drummed in the myth that the failure of the Arab world is America's doing...and now we're beginning to see the results of that stunningly irresponsible, inconceivable lie. Irresponsible because it's set the Arab world on a collision-course with the west, and inconceivable because America is the single largest contributor of humanitarian aid to the developing world--even to many nations that have shown us nothing but contempt.

If those tyrannies don't give way to freedom and democracy, if those dictators continue to perpetuate the great lie, I fear for the future.