Bandow Asks, "Are Republicans Crazy?"

Yes, Doug. They are.

He's written an excellent essay about warmongering Republicans, playing their game of Who-Wants-To-Kill-More-Dark-Skinned-Non-Christians-For-Money, versus the infinitely more reasonable, rational - and, yes, sane - Ron Paul.

As Huckabee, Romney, and Giuliani certainly know, Paul does not blame the U.S. for 9/11, and Iraq has nothing to do with 9/11. However, the truth does not matter to them. Having lost the intellectual case for going to war, and now losing the intellectual case for continuing the occupation, they prefer demagoguery to analysis. Anyone criticizing the Iraq disaster is attacking the troops. Anyone criticizing the occupation is forgetting 9/11. Anyone advocating withdrawal is giving in to al-Qaeda.

Thankfully, the politics of fear no longer appears to work on the American people. A recent poll found that the majority of Americans believe the war was a mistake, the U.S. should bring home its troops, and the Bush administration cannot be trusted to tell the truth about events in Iraq. People now recognize as nonsensical shrieking what passes as thinking for so many war supporters.

One can only hope.