Instead of hectoring those who expressed any doubt about the difficulty of occupying Iraq, the conservatives should worry about their own self-parody: pandering to the base by blessing evangelical Christians who want to proselytize Muslims; protecting their interests by backing a shady expat puppet; pleasing their contributors by pre-emptively awarding rebuilding contracts to Halliburton and Bechtel; and swaggering like Goths as Iraq's cultural heritage goes up in flames.

Is there NO education in this country? Who gave control of this nation to people who avidly subscribe to the philosophy of "if you've seen one artifact of the birth of civilization, you've seen them all"? And where is freedom of religion -- more, respect for others' religions -- when evangelical Christians are given tacit approval to convert all those "heathen" Muslims? (The people who, by the way, would agree that there's "only one God and one faith" -- while still believing people of other organized religions to be "people of the book.")

Frustrating.

Maureen Dowd's column