“Friend of Dean” Mark Shields Speaks Out

Never one to mince words, Mark Shields speaks out with a timely message – and some praise for Howard Dean

Do you remember when Saddam Hussein — who at the time was dividing his time between a hole in the ground and a shed piled with dirty clothes and was obviously not commanding any organized opposition — was captured last Dec. 14? Former Vermont governor and then-Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean actually dared to spread the ugly truth that, while a very good thing, “the capture of Saddam has not made America safer.”

Such candor brought down the wrath of Dean opponent Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who fumed, “Howard Dean has climbed into his own spider hole if he believes the capture of Saddam has not made America safer.” Lieberman looks like the soul of restraint compared to Wall Street Journal opinion columnist James Taranto, who wrote: “It’s not easy to cram so much idiocy, mendacity and arrogance into nine words. … Dean’s assertion is impossible to support rationally.”

As more young Americans daily make their last, long trip home from Iraq — in body bags — how many of their families and neighbors feel safer because Saddam Hussein is today in custody? Do you think any one of the 40,000 or so foreign policy/national security gurus who ridiculed and condemned Howard Dean, last December, has for so much as a microsecond thought about apologizing or had even a flash of self-doubt?

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