Having read some of MoDo's past work, for a moment there, I was sure she was leading up to some exquisitely clever twist like: "His name? George W. Bush." But after I thought about it a moment, the initial "anti"'s gave away the game.

You forget that attacking others' motives is the standard mode of argument on the left, pioneered by the Stalinists: "Why is he arguing that millions died in the Soviet Union? Doesn't that prove that he really wants the capitalists to oppress the proletariat?" Similarly today's left never argues the merits of any issue, they just use the issue as an occasion to slander the motives of their opponents.



Ms. Dowd is well aware that Saddam is a sociopathic mass murderer. She just wants to win power in America, and one way to do that is to argue that Republicans' desire to attack Saddam reveals them to be militaristic baby-killers who delight in the civilian casualties of war.



I believe that in the fantasy lives of liberals, the world consists of only three kinds of people: virtuous liberals, evil Republicans, and animals. Everyone outside America deserves as little regard as the squirrels running about our neighborhoods; they are to be ignored and do not factor into political or policy issues. Even sociopathic murderers like Saddam do not merit thought or concern, any more than the carnage inflicted by Serengeti lions upon antelopes merit our concern. Rather, all our energy must be focused on defeating those evil Republicans and cementing the hold of virtuous liberals upon power.



In Ms. Dowd's fantasy world, there is no contradiction in her statements. Saddam is a mass murderer, but an inconsequential one; and Republicans are evil, and their evil is consequential. That's all there is to it.

pj: "I believe that in the fantasy lives of liberals, the world consists of only three kinds of people: virtuous liberals, evil Republicans, and animals. "

This made me laugh on an otherwise crummy day, thanks.

It would be stretching it to think that MoDo's journey to the Kingdom of Saud might actually have resulted in a revelation for her about the reality of the war on terrorism. More than likely her anti-Saddam stance is a passing thing, like a flu virus, and after a few days back in Washignton she'll be mad at Bush again because not enough Hollywood celebrities are visiting Washington anymore and the Georgetown party circuit isn't anywhere near as good as it was under Clinton...

Dowd hasn't changed her views on Saddam. Haven't you heard. After spending some 20 years trying to get nuclear weapons he would never DREAM of using them against the US. Nope, no problem in letting an anti-Semitic, anti-Christion, anti-American, megalomaniacal, sociopathic mass murderer get his hands on nukes, none whatsoever. Stop being such a fearmonger.