It's been a while since I've quoted VDH or, heck, with all my biz travel of late, even had a chance to really crank out real blog entries.   I'll remedy the former.   2 great VDH pieces - first on the metamorphosis of Hillary Clinton --

"I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants."

Who recently blurted that out?

Pat Buchanan? Congressman Tom Tancredo? Nope, it was Hillary Clinton.

...Many on the left, however, feel that the medicine of moving the party to the center is worse than the disease of remaining irrelevant. That said, triangulation for a chameleon Sen. Clinton relies on an emotional base that will still cry Hillary, right or wrong.

...We can already gauge the success of Hillary Clinton's new odyssey in a variety of ways. For starters, out-of-touch Democrats on the left are already worried how far she will stray.

But Republicans are even more fidgety that she is not just moving laterally in the views she expresses, but up in the polls as well. Like frozen observers watching a train wreck in progress, conservatives are sweating that a winking Hillary might just get elected and then unveil her true liberal agenda.

And second, "Why are we tearing ourselves up" over Iraq -

So why this growing angry divide at home about Iraq? First, the war crystallized preexisting but fundamental philosophical differences among segments of the American people.

Consider all the conflicting refrains:

* We are a republic, not an empire and should husband our resources for ourselves;

* No, we are a pathological presence abroad and should husband and redistribute our resources for our own poor;

* No, we are a constabulatory force that should not take sides per se, but rather enforce order and stability in a global commercial system of free markets and trade;

* No, morally we cannot enjoy democracy at home while allowing it to die abroad;

* No, realistically our ultimate security rests with as many democracies overseas as possible.

Issues as complex as Iraq are almost always, at their root, a philosophical divide rather than a merely logistical one.   Ignore that, and you'll find that the folks who argue about "too few troops", "not enough armor", etc. will always have another issue up their sleeves should those be magically addressed.