The perpetual state of denial of the Left regarding the connection between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the world terror network, and anti-American efforts contained therein, may be impenetrable, as the liberals often possess density equanimity with that of a black hole, or at least a white dwarf.

But the incomprable Victor Davis Hanson weighs in anyway:

The old debate whether Saddam Hussein was involved with al Qaeda is now calcified. Liberal conventional wisdom denies any such linkage since there is no firm evidence that Saddam knew of, or was involved in, the September 11 attacks. Thus most on the left ignore entirely that Ansar al-Islam was doing Saddam's dirty work in fighting the Kurds, that Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas resided in Baghdad, that Saddam openly harbored Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmed Hikmat Shakir who were connected to the effort in 1993 to blow up the World Trade Center and various anti-American plots, and that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi fled Afghanistan to the sanctuary of Iraq.

There is no one better on the Middle East than VDH. Period.

Until those on the opposite of the ideological divide deign to acknowledge even rudimentary and blatently obvious facts regarding the interwoven fabric of international jihad, they are not to be involved in discussions hereon or even to be taken seriously as players in the game. It would be both dangerous and foolhardy to do otherwise.