I have a long list of quotes from Democratic leaders showing that their attitudes about Iraq, Saddam, international support, and other issues were for some mysterious reason completely different under an earlier administration.

Add to that list Howard Dean:

Though Dean has repeatedly criticized Bush for failing to win international support for the Iraq war, for instance, in June 1998 he defended Clinton's bombing of Iraq by arguing on the Canadian program, "I don't think we could have built an international coalition to invade or have a substantial bombing of Saddam."

During another 1998 appearance on the show, "The Editors," Dean said it was not worth trying to woo French support on foreign policy initiatives. "The French will always do exactly the opposite on what the United States wants regardless of what happens, so we're never going to have a consistent policy," he said.

Asked about the comment, Dean said he now thinks that because the French "have seen how bad things can get with the United States, they might respond to a new president who's willing to offer them respect again."

Nice save there, Dean. Not.

During the interview, Dean outlined what could be called his doctrine on the use of force. He said it was appropriate in three instances: after an attack on the United States, when there is clear evidence of an imminent attack and in cases of genocide when other world bodies failed to act. But, he added, he did not favor military interventions in areas where there was no functioning government.

Thus, he said, he might have supported using force to prevent genocide in Rwanda in the mid-1990s, but would not have provided U.S. forces in Somalia or the Congo. As for the Iraq war, he said, "It is now very clear Saddam Hussein presented no threat to the United States whatsoever." He later amended that to "no imminent threat."

Saddam murdered about ten times the number of Kurds, Marsh Arabs, and others of his own people than were killed in the Eastern European ethnic cleansings. I guess some genocides are more equal than others.