hy·per·bo·le (h -pûr b -l ) n. A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in I could sleep for a year or This book weighs a ton.

It seems that hyperbole is the name of the game regarding the Iraq War of 2003. From protesters to big supporters, liberals to conservatives, LWW's to RWW, it is a tool that insulates those parties from addressing the true issues.

Let's look at a few.

We are setting a precedent by 'invading' Iraq.

The invasion of Iraq is, by no means, the first time we have invaded a country that did not attack us. In the last 50 years, we have invaded Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, Haiti, Belgrade, and Iraq ( Bush I). In all of these cases, we attacked without being attacked by those countries or agents of those countries. You could even include Afghanistan, because the link between Al Qaeda, the Taliban and 9/11 was not discovered until after the invasion. So our incursion into Iraq is hardly a precedent.

Even regime change is not a precedent when you consider the reasons for attacking Panama and Haiti.

I guess when you have no argument, you can always make one up!

Next up -- unilateral action.