Afghanistan was a result of 911, Iraq was not. Iraq was a result of a tyrant not abiding by a sees fire agreement with the UN, which the UN was unwilling to enforce after many years. The two are connected in that when Hussein was toppled, Al Qaeda encouraged radical Islamists to stream into the vacuum with promises of virgins if they just go to Iraq and die. Al Qaeda and radical Islamists realize that if they cannot take Iraq, the rest of radical Islam throughout the Middle East is in danger of falling. Similar to WWII in that a violent ideology is trying to take over country by country, this time with no central figure, however. It is a world wide struggle however with only the US with the stomach for the fight.

So make your points, please, everyone, without using “simple-mindedness” or “stunted intellect.” I care deeply about this blog and its community; despite my own outburst, the tone of which I already regret, Bruce and everyone else should feel welcome to comment. I am a red-stater by birth and tradition, living in a blue state and stock out of reasons to vote for Republicans. I suspect we’re all a little like that — caught somewhere in the middle — and I want to capture it on the comment threads of this show.

There is enough Crossfire in our lives; let’s try something different.

You take out your magic wand (the word “evil”) and expect everyone on the left to melt like a wicked witch. Dude, I know just a bit about evil. The cat’s name is Osama, and I want him bad. But you’ve taken the bait on the switch, and now you have the nerve to continue to lecture us.

Let me tell you something loud and clear: Saddam didn’t have a dirty Kleenex to wave at us, never mind tons and tons of biological agents. If you consider “evil” to be idle threats by a paper tiger, then you’ve lowered the bar on evil quite a bit.

You quite conveniently forget that Saddam was contained. That’s pretty much an established fact now. The administration’s greatest fear was that the containment would be recognized by the electorate before W had a chance to launch his personal war. So, yes, there are multiple ways to skin a cat. I don’t quite comprehend your preference for the method involving the most blood and gore possible, other than to attribute it to some kind of stunted intellect that is all-too-common-nowadays.

You also quite conveniently forget that one of the reasons Saddam was able to be evil to his own populace was because our government helped him. And many of the same players are running the current administration.

So, go ahead Bruce, continue to lump every single strawman in the Mideast into one caricature named “evil”, and then claim that only you know what to do about it. In the meantime increasing numbers in this country have stopped being mesmerized by the man behind the curtain cynically preying on their Sept. 11 trauma. Your kind of simple-mindedness is finally in eclipse again. I’m sure it’s not the last we’ll see of it, but at least the pendulum is swinging back.

Brendan, wow, I didn’t know that.

You folks on the left don’t understand Evil or what to do about it. … Evil is relentless and must be confronted headon without hesitation or it will destroy you. Wake up!

First of all, you have no idea what our politics are. I happen to be a bitterly disappointed ex-Republican, but I shouldn’t have to be in the position of telling you that. Try to avoid indulging in assumptions that make your life easier. Second, perhaps the press went easier on Roosevelt because he was doing a good job.

Third, let’s take another look at what you wrote up there:

You folks on the left don’t understand Evil…

You may be right. Perhaps I was too busy on the afternoon of September 11 cleaning someone else’s blood off of my shirt to understand evil. Or maybe I was distracted washing off the grit of the cloud of debris that killed several people close to where I was standing. Or maybe it was later when I forgot about evil, when I sank into a year-long depression because I couldn’t get what I had seen out of my head.

Again, I shouldn’t have to be in the position of having to tell you any of this. I’m a producer for this show, so I’ll stop at that and let the rest of you hash out George Bush among yourselves. But nobody gets any points for saying the terrorists are the bad guys and, frankly, the suggestion that perhaps I don’t understand how bad the bad guys are is insulting and has no place on this comment thread.

I’m not so worried about understanding Evil– I think I need to spend more time understanding history. You mention Truman, saying that the press didn’t oppose him or second-guess him in WWII. Well, let’s look at another conflict: Korea. Here’s a short but interesting article I found, and I’m gonna quote much more of it than I should, but Bruce, you simply can’t tell me that Americans stood uncritically behind their President:

To be sure, the Korean War was an unpopular war here at home. It was the first war that the United States did not win….

Republicans and even some Democrats began to question and publicly criticize the president’s handling of the war and the homefront. Americans began to panic and as Christmas 1950 approached a pall of defeatism and doom descended. An editorial in Life magazine, surrounded by a giddy blitz of Christmas ads, warned darkly that “the news is of disaster; World War III moves ever closer… our leaders are frightened, befuddled, and caught in a great and inexcusable failure to marshal the strength of America.”

In addition, [Truman] had to search for a way to rally the American people around an unpopular, undeclared, and limited war; stabilize an economy poised at a meltdown; and mobilize even faster an industrial and defense establishment that was already near the breaking point. Such were the challenges and vicissitudes of limited war in the nuclear age. By December, the Korean War had become “Truman’s War,” and he alone would come to shoulder the enormous burden of governing a people and political process that had become breathless with fear and rife with criticism and chicanery…

Throughout the remainder of his term in office, Truman would contend with growing criticism of his handling of the economy and homefront, some of which went so far as to accuse him of socialism and outright despotism…

Then, of course, came what was surely one of the biggest crises of the entire war: Truman’s decision to fire General Douglas MacArthur on 11 April 1951. Although MacArthur had clearly undermined his commander-in-chief, had engaged in essentially insubordinate behavior, and had made repeated strategic and tactical blunders in prosecuting the war, Truman was mercilessly lambasted by the press and excoriated by his opponents for dismissing the vainglorious war hero. McCarthyites, conservative Republicans, and other foes of Truman used the MacArthur dismissal to launch a fresh barrage of abuse at the president, who nonetheless stood firm by his decision. Be that as it may, the crisis further crippled Truman’s ability to respond to changing circumstances on and off the battlefield and, of course, his approval ratings were by then in a virtual free-fall…

Clearly, America’s homefront during the Korean War reflected a house divided. It engendered bitter rhetoric and partisan infighting, encouraged the continued antics of Senator McCarthy and his minions, fostered a poisonous atmosphere of paranoia and fear, and created two separate constitutional crises: the MacArthur Affair and the Steel Crisis…

Finally, the Korean War unseated the Democratic party’s nearly uninterrupted hold on power in Washington, one that went all the way back to 1932. In 1952 Americans elected a Republican president for the first time since 1928, and turned over control of the House and Senate to the Republicans as well.

Bruce, don’t tell me that the press stood behind their Democratic president. Don’t tell me that the Republicans stood behind their Democratic president. Don’t tell me that the people stood behind their Democratic president.

I agree that this DSM is only another piece of a thousand piece puzzle. But we have the picture. It’s as plain as day.

This President should be impeached. The harm he’s done, worse than Nixon, will have us repairing for years.

In the meantime we are all fiddling here about memos. I’m mad as hell.