[Protagoras]

So any criticism is an electronic lynching? No questions can be asked? No one is allowed to hold anyone's feet to the fire?

You are too old to be a coward.

[SoCal Pubbie]

Before the war started, the doomsayers led a chorus of catastrophic predictions that the Iraq incursion was doomed to failure. Perfumed prognosticators such as David Hackworth decried the state of preparation and equipment of the troops, and counseled that caution an postponement was the best policy to follow. There were warnings of increased terrorism, of deadly weapons of mass destruction attacks on our advancing forces, of a groundswell of righteous indignation from the Muslim world, and the everlasting hatred of the U.S. by the Iraqi people and their global Islamic brethren.

Once the operation began, the screeching rose in intensity, with stories of fierce and unexpected resistance from Saddam's faithful, of dissention in the ranks of the leadership over strategic decision making, and diplomatic bungling of the talks with Turkey. The criticism did not slow with the conclusion of hostilities, as was shown by the non event known as looting of the Iraqi National Museum.

Now that the process of rebuilding has begun, the peanut gallery is still hard at work, not offering mea culpas for their grossly inaccurate prewar assessments, but rather with renewed efforts to find some weakness in the administration's policies. There are no weapons of mass destruction they say (never mind the fact that these are the same weapons that the critics said were going to be used on us if we attacked), or the troops will have to be in place forever.

It's pretty obvious to me that the goal is simple criticism of Bush, regardless of what he does. How many of those who carp today would praise the President for "keeping his word" if we pulled out in six months and left Iraq a churning cesspool? I'm sure they would then switch gears and decry the horrible treatment of the innocent Iraqi population and the gutless lack of willpower on the part of Washington.

Let's face it folks, the axis of Buchananites, Naderphiles and the minions of Tom Daschle will never be satisfied. We Bushbots just can't see things clearly as they do, we cannot recognize the hidden hand of American hegemony, or the bungling ineptitude of the drunken frat boy (take you pick) that threatens the very fiber of our Republic.

I wonder what they're going to complain about after Iran and North Korea have shaken off their bonds of tyranny and joined the world of sanity?