Re: in re WMD as self-laid trap.

When congressmen go after one another in matters like this its often just a show for public consumption.  That's why you have congressmen and women going from one pole to another in order to feed the public from both hands.  Witness Joe Lieberman who was all for war against Iraq and who then switched his position to the opposite pole when war became inevitable due to the deliberate build up of forces.  As far as the historical precidents mentioned in the Gunder Frank note,  most of what the general population believes about history is a confabulation anyways.  

It's been reported countless times that groups, like individual people, often believe what is in their best interests to believe about themselves, their in-group and the *others*.   It's a way of protecting the ego, individual or collective and of claiming rights and making demands.  The more those rights and demands are obtained the more they seem to be *just* and their due.  Of course,  the *other* must then become responsible for their lesser fate which becomes their due. It's a traditional, aggressive and conflict heavy outlook.

KR