Wow, another one of your catch-all statements without any basis in fact. I've never heard a single poster on here say there are no bad guys in the world.

There are maybe a dozen or so regular posters here. You think this is my only window on the outside world? There are Americans out there who have all but formed Ahmedinejad fan clubs, while simultaneously declaring their own leader the most evil man on the planet. If you'd checked the links on some of my references you would already have seen examples.

This isn't new. As I've said countless times, this attitude has persisted at one level or another for many years. For most of my adult life, it was applied to our adversaries in the Cold War. I could unplug Ahmedinejad's name from these approving websites and plug in Daniel Ortega or any of a number of other names, and you would have exactly what we had during the 80s. The phenomenon in the case of Iran and Ahmedinejad isn't broad enough to have it's own name yet, like "sandalista," but it's only a matter of time.

The finest tacticians in history have never looked at their opponents in black and white. To do so would give the "bad guy" the advantage over you in the chess match of adversity. Hitler is the classic example - evil as they come and yet, he had to have some ability in person to pull out charm and charisma in social gatherings and wiggle his way into power. You need to acknowledge those "good" traits to fully understand your enemy. It's not enough to know the jerk is a homicidal maniac and say "bad - kill".

During WWII, nobody on the Allied side had any other goal than to reduce Hitler to his component molecules if at all possible. The only reason any of our fine tacticians had for understanding Hitler's motivations and methods was to increase the chance of bringing this about.

I don't care if Saddam loved his mother. I don't care if Adolf Hitler kissed babies. I don't care that Timothy McVeigh was a decorated war hero.

The proper response to "homicidal maniac" IS "bad - kill." Any other response gives the maniac power and puts the rest of us in danger.