How can we be a democratic nation if we can't have a Central Intelligence Agency that reflects moral standards of the average citizen.

I just read an article in the NYTimes: "Officers say U.S. Aided in War Despite Use of Gas" 18Aug2002. Undisclosed sources in the DIA and/or CIA claim we (USA) assisted the Iraqi's in the war against Iran despite knowledge that chemical warfare was being used. High officials in the current and first-Bush administration, issue denials that we planned the use of chemical weapons for the Iraqi's, which, by the way is not what the sources claimed at all. Typical political/diplomatic obfuscation.

Apparently now that we are through with the monster of Iraqi chemical arms, we need to spend who-knows-how-much to destroy them, and him if necessary.

At the very least this seems to me like a bone-headedly inefficient way to go about international policy. But then I, like the vast majority of USA voters, am not abreast of all the details am I. As the churchlady might say "How convEEEEnient!"

We have a long and infamous history of looking the other way when we deemed it "convenient" at the time, usually only to be bit in the ass because of our short-sightedness later.

It's hard to hold ourselves up as the moral paragon of virtue with the history we have, and yet we seem constantly surprised over others questioning our intentions.

Credibility isn't something that is a given--it's earned over the long-haul. And when we pass ourselves going back the other way on some of the same roads we've been down before--it's no wonder others point out the hypocrisy of our positions.

There are a lot of "bad guys" out there--it just seems to rotate as to who we're calling bad at the moment, while a Rogue's Gallery of bad guys stays hidden in our diplomatic skirts.