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Make no mistake, each and every person who demonstrated on February 15th was a useful fool for Saddam Hussein.

First, let's dispel the notion that these were peace activists: not one of them took to the streets to demonstrate against war in the Balkans, in Africa or when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait 12 years ago. The people who protested simply wanted to vent their anger at the United States, and Saddam welcomed their help in his propaganda war against the U.S.

The crowds taking to the streets in cities around the world effectively became extensions of Saddam's propaganda machine, and mouthed his deceptive protests as if they were their own. Much like the "anti-nuclear" rallies in the 1980s, the anti-US agitators were at it again this time, guiding the useful fools into the prepared avenues of protest.

Let's expose the false claims of the protestors:

• The United States refuses to negotiate.

  The truth: the United States has been negotiating for 12 years.

• This is George Bush's war.

  The United States and its allies have been on the same side of this issue for those 12 years as well, through three different U.S. administrations.

• Iraq has done nothing wrong.

  Iraq has repeatedly violated numerous U.N. resolutions over those 12 years, and new violations have been found since inspections resumed.

• The United States is out to take over the world.

  The United States has never attempted to take over the world, and will never do so. Before 9-11 President Bush was pursuing a policy of disengagement--exactly the opposite course of a nation trying to take over the world.

• The protestors simply wanted peace.

  These same protestors were nowhere to be found in other international conflicts, including the genocides in Africa and the Balkans.

This is simply the same old alliance of United States leftists and anti-US forces that opposed Reagan in the 1980s. And for the same reasons: they want the United States to fail when it tries to lead the world to greater freedom and away from socialism and totalitarianism. Iraq wants to be free to kill a few thousand more people, invade some more neighbors and keep trying to build weapons of mass destruction. The leftists inside the United States would also love to see a Republican Presidency to end in failure, especially after the humiliating impeachment of Bill Clinton.

The most glaring deficiency in the protest crowds was their lack of a moral stance on Iraq. They could not point to anything positive about Iraq's current rulers. All they could do was accuse the United States of future atrocities, a ridiculous allegation. Having learned the propaganda lessons well, though, the crowds had their childish chants down: rhyming "four" and "war" and "eight" and "negotiate" the useful fools advanced Saddam's propaganda to the beat of stomping feet. Noticeably absent from the rallies was any criticism of Saddam's atrocities against his neighbors or the people of Iraq.

In the end, however, these useful fools will fail. They are doomed to the same fate as their 1980s counterparts. The United States knows it is in the right, and it will not be swayed. Not by Iraq, not by weak-willed Europeans and not by useful fools...no matter how many of them there are around the world. After all, might does not make right.

...each and every person who demonstrated on February 15th was a useful fool for Saddam Hussein.

...the United States has been negotating for 12 years.

These same protestors were nowhere to be found in other international conflicts, including the genocides in Africa and the Balkans.

The leftists inside the United States simply want a Republican Presidency to end in failure, especially after the humiliating impeachment of Bill Clinton.