Socal, I appreciate the tone of your 12:53 post. If I understand you correctly, you’re maintaining that WWII was such a high-stakes affair that it justified an alliance with USSR, while you would characterize the Iraq war as an expedient one, which does not justify alliances with unwholesome regimes.

But your original post – “I’m sure our noble allies would agree [that we’re good]” – suggested that we could not be good, in Iraq, if we allied with those nations. In the two posts together you seem to be arguing that if we ally with a country like Pakistan in anything but a fight for our survival we would lose all claim to the moral high ground.

I don’t think so. It’s almost impossible to overstate how awful our enemy in Iraq is. We are much better than them. Do you disagree?