Jake Sexton has an excellent post up about the latest attempt to win the pro-war argument: The Shame Offensive.

The Iraq war isn't about oil, it's not about weapons of mass destruction, it's not about UN resolutions. It might have been a few days ago, but it's not anymore. Now the war is about defeating a tyrant and saving a nation's people from oppression. The hawks on the side of peace and freedom, and the doves are on the side of fascism and suffering.

Jake has noticed something that I have become sick of (it's what inspired my rant earlier this morning): when the other side can't win the argument on the facts they attempt to win by misrepresenting the position of the opposition. You see, we're not protesting because we are concerned that our country is lead by a gung-ho cowboy who would rather bomb a country back to the stone-age than admit that he might be wrong about his mission to bring peace to the world, whether his help is wanted or not. No, that's not it. And we aren't protesting because we believe this current campaign is being driven more by interests in securing oil revenues for Bush buddies and establishing an American hegemony in the middle-east that would allow us to dictate to that region, and the rest of the world, how they should live their lives. No, that's not it either. And we aren't protesting because we are concerned that said attempt to impose our will on the hotbed that is the middle-east will produce a firestorm of terrorism that will make 9/11 seem small by comparison. No, none of that is why we are protesting. We are protesting because we "don't think Saddam is a threat to peace" or we are "objectively pro-Saddam" or we "think Saddam can be trusted". All positions which are, of course, nonsense and which couldn't be further from the truth. But then we don't get to decide what our real motives are. It is up to daddy Bush and his Bushketeers to diagnose our problem and then, quite rightly, round us up for being the enemies of America. For, after all, if we really DO believe that kind of nonsense then we MUST be a threat to the safety of ordinary, decent Americans. Right? By God we should be locked up! I never realized just how much of a threat we actually are! Two plus two equals five. How could I have been so wrong?