Re: "Gritty truths," Bill Kaufmann, June 04, 2004. In March 2003, the Iraq war meant ousting Saddam and destroying his WMDs. Ever since Saddam was plucked from his rabbit-hole and a firm conviction took hold that he had none of the much-ballyhooed WMD, what the Iraq war means has changed considerably.

I understand why Stephen Harper might not be too keen to identify himself with this war. It's like a teenagers' block party gone terribly wrong (homes trashed, neighbours assaulted, the riot cops summoned). I'm all for Harper taking ownership of the mess. It will red-flag the risk we run by allowing war-mongering neo-cons to turn Canada's military into a farm team franchise for the Pentagon.

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(Our current Liberal defence minister also backed sending troops to Iraq.)