Ed, the war may be "undeclared", but it was certainly voted on by Congress--AFTER Congress had a chance to read the Oct 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq and WMD's.

One reason going into Iraq to topple Saddam was "not considered" during the Gulf War had to do with the very remarkable coalition (which included several Arab nations) that GHWB put together. The goal was to liberate Kuwait--period. And many of the coalition members would not have supported the war had the goal been to overthrow Saddam.

Your comment about Republicans not having successfully prosecuted a war since the Civil War is more than a bit inaccurate. Spanish American War, quite successfully prosecuted. And while Democrats were in charge at the beginning of both the Korean War and Vietnam, Republicans were in charge at the end--so I'd say that the success or failure of both of those were somewhat shared.

Ed, if you believe that what the president (or the nation) does should be guided by a poll of the people, then I hope you voted for Ross Perot, because that was his idea. Leadership, as I noted above, is often characterized not by doing what's popular, but by doing what's right. (See JFK's book, "Profiles in Courage".)

We have not ceased the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Those who criticize the CIA ought to read "First In", by Gary Schroen, concerning who first had "boots on the ground" in Afghanistan, and played a pivotal role in ousting the Taliban and shattering Al Qaeda. Yes, OBL escaped--but while the surge in Iraq has occupied most of our attention, there was a recent surge of CIA activity in Afghanistan, stepping up the hunt for OBL and Zawahiri. Unsuccessful to this point, but if he's hiding in the border region of Pakistan, which is quite likely . . . you have to remember that that region was never under the control of even the British, when their empire was at its most powerful, and Pakistan was part of it.

Wherever Ground Zero of the war on terror was on 9/12, I agree with former senator Bob Kerrey that it is now in Iraq. To ignore that fact is to walk around with very serious blinders in place. If we leave in a precipitous fashion, as a majority of Americans would perhaps like us to do (according to the polls), that would give Al Qaeda a free hand to establish terrorist bases in Iraq. And Iraq is a much more critical location for terrorist activity, given the proximity to the majority of the world's oil supply, than Afghanistan ever could be.