[madrussian]

American interests are hardly a "paleocon battle". Neocon interests, however, are hardly American and as such should be a subject to scrutiny, yours included. The terrorists mostly come from American allies in the Middle East, not Iraq. The Saudis are also the ones financing jihads in Chechnya and the Balkans.

[annalex]

American interests, articulated by Bush, are to hunt down the terrorists wherever they are. If they find harbor in Iraq or in Saudi Arabia, that's who the enemy becomes, quite regardless of what the Weekly Standard says, or Buchanan says. Since the terrorist cells are extranational (Osama is Yemeni and grew up in Saudi Arabia, Taliban are Pushtun-Pakistani, some of the perps of 9/11 were Egyptians, Palestinians have a terror network of their own), it is foolish to limit the war to any particular country at the outset.