Surveyor: You’ll note that the debate (for want of a better term) generally breaks cleanly along ideological lines.

The Left wing element of the Democratic Party (not the liberals, there is a huge difference, ideologically speaking), has done an excellent job of demonizing the Bush Administration as a wanton bunch of neocon cowboys, and has conveniently overlooked or completely whitewashed the findings of the intel community during the Clinton years. Hence my questions on rendition, NSA domestic eavesdropping and the various Clinton intel programs, including Echelon and Carnivore.

It is akin to much of the latest literature on the Vietnam War, which finds that earlier works by Karnow and Halberstam were heavily partisan, and overlooked or ignored many key facts about the war, the most important being that the North Vietnamese Communist Party and National Liberation Front were committed to a takeover of Vietnam for ideological and not humanitarian reasons. A fact borne out by the aftermath of that war (post-1975).

A commentator on a news program one Sunday astutely pointed out that the Iraq War will have to move from Current Affairs to History before it will be able to be properly judged. Too volatile right now, and too politicized during this election year.