Botnst,

"An alliance to hunt-down and defeat a group that is bent on destruction of western democracy" is a concept that the Spanish and the rest of the world joined us in when we went into Afghanistan. By your own words many times over, the Iraq "War" is not about that, no WMD, no A-Q center of activity. For you, it is getting rid of Saddam, a bad guy, who would destabilize the oil supplies.

The problem is that some people, including Americans and our allies, and former allies, feel the justification for the invasion of Iraq was an important element, maybe the only element of substance, in their decision to join us. I have heard you make the point the justification is not important to you, and believe you. It is not important to you. For others the justification was taken at face value on our government's word. That word is no longer being taken at face value. If we are getting into a war, we need to have those on our side believe us, and we need to believe them, or we will find ourselves alone.

I believe the problem is very large and fuzzy at the moment. When it clears up I do not want to live under the rule of a government fashioned after the typical Islamic governments of Mid East countries. These encounters that cost us international support in this struggle because we are too distracted by the antics of our enemy to think clearly cannot be excused any longer. Iraq is a gross mistake and we should admit it. It may not change the nightly news headlines much over the next few years, but it may go a long way to restoring our trustworthiness and leadership.

So, if you don't care about the WMD no one, not even GWB's handpicked searchers with superior knowledge of their whereabouts can find, and the unsupportable claims of Saddam and Osama being collaborators as reasons for justifying the invasion of Iraq, because they are not real, and the justifications you cling to are based on the economics of oil supply and demand and the given fact that Saddam was a bad guy, it would be much more straightforward and less "nuanced" if you were consistent. Adding a link from Saddam to the A-Q led group bent on our destruction as the justification for invading Iraq, and casting aspersions on the nations turning their backs on this effort in disgust over how we used them seems less than above board. Kind of arguing for the sake of arguing somewhere along the line.

I think the Spanish are still part of our alliance, but they, like others are not longer going to go with us because we ask. They will question us and say "no" now and then because we taught them it is possibly in their best interest to be independent and untrusting of our word. I don't think they did something smart, by the way, but I think it was as much a message to us as it was a message to anyone else. I see the Brits giving us a similar message soon, along with a number of other old friends. It is a shame. We are losing track of how we rose to our position of leadership, and taking it for granted. Our shortsightedness is damning our future. We are always responding to what the enemy does, which cedes a good bit of control of timing, pace or intensity and scope to the enemy. We need to stretch our vision and strategy to ensure a long future for America at the top of the heap. Jim

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Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)