This George W. Bush nominee to the District Court seems to be using the Carl Paladino defense for his racist email: The judge acknowledged that the content of the email was racist, but said he does not consider himself racist. He said the email was...
don’t look at me i didn’t do it
Exactly right:Meanwhile, you need to put Iraq in strategic context. The goal wasn't merely to topple Saddam, but to intimidate other "rogue" regimes by creating a credible threat to take.
Matt provides some useful quotes taking on Paul Berman's attempt to claim that he was contemporaneously against the Iraq War. Perhaps even more instructive is this one from another post.