Throughout this discussion, you continually suggest that the left "lost" the argument or that they didn't have a clear message as evidenced by the fact that . . . What? The US finally went to war? Opinion polls show that US citizens have a low threshold for being convinced that it's time to use the military?
The fact is that the left and the protesters *won* the argument, if you want to talk about a real argument. The Bush administration never did have an argument, and your beloved Democrats, too stupid and craven to see through the election-cycle sloganeering, were caught flatfooted on strategy by Dubya--Dubya!--and so were left mumbling about "reservations" when they could have easily, so easily enunciated another agenda starting last August. All they had to do was watch TV: every other day someone from the New Republic, of all places, was saying how the Dems could be arguing against the war. But all we got was calls for fiscal rectitude in a recession. And now you want to start blaming WWP and progressives for the fact that they didn't win enough hearts and minds--nay, for the war itself--despite the success of the anti-war mobilization in all other historical terms? And despite the fact that the Bush administration showed no interest in public opinion--as if a couple thousand more soccer moms in the marches were really going to cause this administration to have a crisis of conscience? This is unbelievable, even from you.
Christian