Well, I'm only three years younger, and I don't know about you, but I've lived overseas quite a bit. You put way too much emphasis on the whole "respect" thing. ... Now go to the countries of the former Iron Curtain and see how much anti-Americanism you find. They genuinely love us and respect us for our stand and sacrifice in freeing them from totalitarianism.

Well, you've got me there, Barndog ... I've spent my entire life in this country. I guess that's why I and 70% of my fellow Americans may have a little different perspective on things. We feel that America is on the wrong track, headed in the wrong direction. As for all those Iron Curtain countries that genuinely love us and respect us, why the hell aren't their troops fighting by our side in Iraq? I'm not stupid or naive enough to expect other countries to necessarily LIKE America (or Americans) but I am never going to stop wanting other countries to RESPECT us. Even grudging respect will do. It means that they know that we still stand for the things that our forefathers have fought and died for over the last 225 years. It also means that we can at least hope that they'll stand by our side if we need them. Instead, we've totally squandered the good will of virtually the entire world after the 9/11 attack by our pre-emptive attack on Iraq, our insistence on the right to hijack and torture suspected terrorists, our treatment of prisoners at Abu Graib and Guantanamo ... the list goes on and on. If Iron Curtain countries love us maybe it's because we're becoming more like them every day. If (or WHEN) we're attacked again I suspect most of the world will sit back and say "Good, they had it coming". That probably won't bother you in the slightest, Barndog, but it'll bother the hell out of me.

Um, yeah, and the tightened security we have instituted since then.

What tightened security would that be? Sorry, but I think securing our ports instead of trying to outsource them to the UAE, checking the CARGO being loaded onto airplanes instead of just the passengers, and securing our chemical plants and nuclear facilities would make our country a lot more secure than taking nail clippers away from people boarding an airplane, wiretapping American citizens without a warrant and keeping track of what books we check out of a library. I would venture to say that a majority of Americans are less safe and feel less safe now than they were before 9/11. I've lost count of the number of reasons George Bush has trotted out to justify our pre-emptive attack on Iraq as one reason after another has been exposed for the lie that it was. At the end of the day all George Bush has done is create even more reasons for millions of people to hate and fear America. I stand by my original argument, Bin Laden doesn't have to waste his time, money and resources planning another attack on America when we're doing a pretty damned good job of self-destructing all on our own (and bankrupting our economy in the process).

I don't know where you spent your time before you wandered into Salon, Barndog, but eventually you're bound to realize that you're not going to change any minds here. I think it's also pretty obvious that you're not here to listen to what we have to say. By all means continue to post -- that's certainly your right. As for me, I'm paying my Salon subscription fee to read the kind of thoughtful, well-researched posts that people like Tim Grieve put out here every day. The ability to post responses is a fairly new Salon feature that I thoroughly enjoy but I'm not going to waste any more of my time trying to justify my thoughts, feeling and opinions to the Barndogs of the world especially when they seem intent on turning this forum into some kind of a pissing contest.

How many times in the last 2 years have we heard a Republican accuse the Democrats of "cutting and running" when the subject turns to bringing some of our troops home from Iraq. It's gotten to the point that every time I hear that phrase I start wondering why the Democrats don't start declaring that it's the REPUBLICANS that "cut and run" every chance they get! . They sure as hell cut and ran last August when Katrina was headed towards our Gulf Coast, they cut and ran when seniors needed a comprehensive prescription drug program that included negotiating lower prices, they cut and ran when it came to properly equipping our troops with armored vehicles and protective body armor, they cut and ran when they let American banks re-write our bankruptcy laws, and they cut and ran when they let George Bush ignore North Korea and Iran in favor of a pre-emptive attack on a country that posed no immediate threat. In fact, Republicans will cut whenever a "liberal" program designed to help Americans comes up for a vote (and run right into the arms of the nearest lobbyist or big business campaign contributor!)

And while they're at it, the Dems need to start repeating Bush's latest chest-thumping quote every chance they get ... there will be no "early withdrawal" from Iraq "so long as we run the Congress and occupy the White House." If a majority of Americans really do think this war is a mistake, as polls would indicate, then George Bush has made their choices on November 7th crystal clear ... vote Republican and "some future president" will be left to clean up what's left of Iraq or vote Democrat to start bringing our troops home in 2006-2007.

On November 7th every Republican who thinks the Iraq War is a mistake should be repeating over and over one of George Bush's most profound homilies ... "fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."