The only potential benefit to the war (and I hesitate to call it a benefit) is that it may be the blunder that costs Bush his re-election. We can hope for that.

Agreed. Utterly sad, to the point I feel shame that I share the same title ("American") with these people. I know that these types of people do not represent what I personally would like to think of as the America I know and love, but when there is such a large precentage of people that see nothing wrong with this, I start to worry.

Yeah, I hope Bush rots . . .

I'm not american, I'm from the middle-east, and I'm sure that not all american are like these sad guys and girls, but actually I can affirm that the great majority of people in the region and surely in other places in this world don't agree with me, and their hate of America is greater than ever!!!!
And I thing that guys like you, can help to change this, I don't know exactly how, but I'm sure that a great part of the solution should come from the inside of the US.

Those 44% are glued to their television watching Fox news and stuck on AM radio talk shows. They're constantly being reminded that "Bush is great - disagree with us and you are not a patriotic American".

I usually skip these but some of the comments here needed to be addressed. I apologize in advance for the long post.

Michael: Typical uninformed bashing here. It seems to be that you are the one being prejudicial. You cannot seem to fathom that people who agree with Bush have a mind of their own. This to me is one of the weakness of the "lefties" b/c they think so much of themselves. Snooty seems to be the right word.

Dare: 1) It seems that only people who claimed a DIRECT connection be AQ and Saddam is the media. I don't recall any official announcement to that effect. If you have one please cite.
2) Saddam has/had WMDs. He used them. He says he destroyed them but does not back it up with any proof. Just imagine the Police not investigating known drug dealers and their labs simply because they said they don't do it anymore. Saddam had to prove it and he did not!
3) I agree with you that what happened at the prison was terrible and the offenders should be put to justice. You seemingly imply that the US Military itself is guilty. This I must vehemently disagree. The actions of a few do not reflect on the whole.
4) Please remember the 3000+ people that died on 9/11. The many hundreds on 3/11. And all the other attacks before these. This cannot happen again and I will support any president (Bush or Kerry) that understands this and will do everything in their power to prevent it.

Fakhri: I am sorry that so many of the people in your region hate us. But you know what? I don't care as long as they don't try to kill us. When you ask what we can do, well, I think we are doing it now. The people of the Middle East (ME), save Israel, do not have any sense of democracy and self-rule. They have been put down by Kings, Colonels, Sultans, etc. The world may not approve of this but as we have seen, the world will not do anything about it. The status quo is king. Seems like the world does not really expect much from the ME people. The rulers stays rich and the rest get by however they can. Now, you may not like what's going on in Iraq now but let me ask you if the prospect of the people in Iraq having the opportunity to choose their own future. This means leaders, laws, etc without resorting to violence. Does this sound appealing? I think so. Does this process happen overnight? nope. Why? Because it takes time for people to really get it that they have a say, that they can speak out, that they can help make a future. The reason I like what Bush is doing is that he is expecting more from the people of Iraq and in general the ME. He is telling them that each one of them can have a hand in building up Iraq. While the rest of the world seem to accept terrorists acts from the ME, Bush is, through action, saying its unacceptable. The people there can do better than that. I hope it works in Iraq. It make take years and years to find out. But the effort is worth it. Take advantage of this opportunity!!!!