Kuri, the Communist Party has been active (and well-organized) since the beginning of the
Baathist’s ousting, and the administration has been fine with it. Communist parties are normal in pluralistic democracies and Iraq has a lonnnnggg merchant tradition before the Baathist instituted their totalitarian variety of Socialism.
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Dean has NEVER been a left-wing nut. Many of his supporters have misunderstood his views because of his position on the invasion of Iraq. I was waiting for them to be disappointed when they found how centrist, even robust, his attitude toward foreign policy really is. His much more in agreement with the Bush doctrine then people seem to think, Furthermore, I don’t think his temperment (or Kerry’s for that matter) would protect him from the characterizations of being “unilateral” or “a cowboy” as anti-American world sentiments tend to produce (and which are so easily applied to Bush).
Howard Dean is actually very conservative on some issues. Gun control for example. He is not in favor of gun control, which made him popular with the Vermont hunting voters.
His problem right now however transcends what he is actually for or against. The problem is one of perception. He has entered the national political stream as one being totally opposed to the Iraq war. Unlike many of the other important candidates, he was totally against any sort of military action.
I think this paints him as the liberal he does not want to be if he wins the nomination. However, it does paint him as the liberal he wants to be in order to get the nomination in the first place. As you know, the most liberal vote in the democratic primaries. The most conservative vote in the republican primaries.
Lumpy, your comment about now we can pull the soldiers out of Iraq, unless this war is really about oil is not very rational. Just because we captured Saddam doesn’t mean that attacks on the U.S. military and installed Iraqi government won’t continue. Iraq is still at a delicate stage. The country’s infrastructure still needs to be rebuilt, and we will most likely maintain a military presence until the goal is achieved. There are still many opportunistics groups in Iraq that are looking to establish power.