BYGONES ARE FOREVER BYGONES: Thalif Deen reports, "U.S. Bent on Attacking Iraq, Mideast Experts Say." Digging deeper, we see

"Chris Toensing, editor of the Washington-based Middle East Report, said the administration had invested too much political capital in 'regime change' to give up its hard-line.

''Administration officials have a history of saying that arms inspection cannot be trusted to contain the 'mortal threat' of the Iraqi regime's putative weapons of mass destruction,'' he added."

Catch the non-sequitur? Past investments of political capital, whatever that is, are irreversibly lost and cannot be salvaged despite current investments. A past pattern of duplicity, on the other hand, is evidence of an adversary at the negotiating table that cannot be trusted. Putting scare quotes around "mortal threat" does not conceal the modus morons.