Atrios has already talked about this, but it bears repeating:

From last night's Capital Gang

NOVAK: That's exactly right. But the last thing that the hawks inside the administration, and their friends outside the administration, want is a coup d'etat that would replace Saddam Hussein. They want a war as a manifestation of U.S. power in the world and as a sign that the United States is capable of changing the balance of power and the political map of the Middle East.

There's no question that the last thing they want is Saddam Hussein put on a plane and taken...

O'BEIRNE: Bob, Bob, speaking...

NOVAK: ... to -- taken away.

O'BEIRNE: ... speaking, speaking for this hawk, I want to see a regime in Baghdad that would not be armed with weapons of mass destruction. That might not happen through a coup. If that could happen through a coup, you could avoid war.

SHIELDS: But Bob, that's a pretty serious charge (UNINTELLIGIBLE). You're saying that there are people, I mean, who almost have a blood lust in this administration.

NOVAK: Listen, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) don't (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

SHIELDS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you're saying they want war.

NOVAK: All right. Talking to a senior official, and he said to me, he said, Well, if we don't hit in Iraq, where are we going to hit? And they -- it's a desire that the United States, the superpower, is going to manifest its authority to the rest of the world.

Listen, I just feel that this potential -- this war, I just trust it comes off easily. But I have trepidation that it won't be easy, and there's going to be a terrible consequences from it.

How many times have we heard mainstream and even left-leaning pundits scoff at the suggestion that the Bushies want a war with Iraq regardless of what is proven about Iraq's weapons program. Many of them simply can't believe that this administration could be so cold-blooded as to sacrfice the lives of young American citizens in order to make a point (that point being that we can whip anyone's ass so you better shut up and do what we tell you to do). Well, Robert Novak, hardly a leftist, anti-American, "objectively pro-Sadaam" pundit seems to believe it is true. Why can't people like Mark Shields? Isn't it time for the blinders to come?