A little news this morning on the seriousness of neoconservatives regarding threat assessment and the War on Terror.

First off, these guys take seriously the notion that the US has some kind of right to move against potential threats. So, for instance, we had to move against Iraq because some folks in the administration had a vague feeling that Saddam Hussein might have something nasty up his sleeve, which was unsubstantiated by any hard evidence. Now, their man, David Kay, who they brought in after the war to try to find some evidence of the threat they were talking about, says there wasn't any. And so they're resisting his call for an investigation into prewar intelligence. If that's allowed to go forward, then someone might object the next time Dubya declares some random country to be a dire threat for no reason -- and that would endanger the Republic.

They also take seriously the war on terror. Specifically, the war on terrorist attacks against people they like. A nuance which escapes people who complain about Richard Perle's appearance at a fundraiser for, among other groups, the Mujahedein-e-Khalq, a terrorist group which attacks people who they don't like.

Surely such devotion to principle will continue impress our potential allies and supporters abroad, exactly as this group has in the past.

Perle link via Atrios...