In the pre-Iraq war days, conservatives often trafficked in these two loosely-sourced claims:

1. France and Germany oppose American action in Iraq because they have secretly violated UN resolutions by trading with Iraq and are afraid an invasion would uncover evidence of this.

2. Terrorism can not exist without states who sponsor it; taking out nations that funnel money to terrorists would inevitably lead to the end Al-Qaeda and similar groups.

Conservative magazines (weekly standard, national review) and weblogs (instapundit, best of the web) routinely used these points in virtually every foreign policy note. Perhaps a bit of retrospection is in order, no?