[DVaut1]

andy,

It seems pretty simple to me: the more allusions the right can drop about World Wars and 'fascists', the less introspection is needed to justify our foreign policy. It's hard to get people in a democracy to consent to fight in wars -- that consent must be constantly negotiated and renegotiated. As public support for the Iraq war has waned over the past three years, the rhetoric and insinuation of a constant threat has to be ratcheted up to compensate, as you note in your OP -- which results in the the right wing noise machine resorting to a near constant level of hand-waving justifications, which are essentially various re-worded pleas similar to: "Don't stop supporting this war now! Don't you realize this is a World War?! We're fighting fascists here!", i.e., as natedogg notes, it's alot easier to demand the masses just focus on Goldstein and buzz-words then to continously try to justify a war that looks more and more unjustifiable. That it's election season, and that some on the right want to take the war in Iraq and extend it to Syria, Iran, North Korea, etc. just furthers the need to ensure the demagoguery continues.