If I Knew Then...

And now the most engaging two minutes in television, the latest from the wartime grapevine:

Poll-itical Ramifications

When asked to identify countries they deemed threats to global peace, Europeans' No. 1 answer is Israel (search), with the U.S. tied for 2nd. Fifty-nine percent of those responding said Israel is a threat, followed by 53 percent who said the U.S is, the same percent who considered Iran and North Korea threats.

Israel attacked the results, and the European Union (search), which commissioned the 15-nation poll, also criticized the survey for sending a -- "distorted signal," insisting the results are -- "the fruit of a misleading question."

But European Commission President Romano Prodi of Italy conceded the polls' results may indicate anti-Semitic prejudice in Europe.

Off The Mark

David Kay (search), the chief weapons inspector in Iraq, has sent a letter to The Washington Post calling last week's story headlined "Search in Iraq Fails to Find Nuclear Threat" -- "wildly off the mark." Kay says much of The Post's analysis comes from an Australian army commander who, The Post says to the contrary, is not involved in Kay's hunt for weapons of mass destruction nor does he have any expertise in nuclear weapons.

The Post published Kay's letter, and alongside it is one from that Australian General who says he did not give The Post -- "views on Iraq's nuclear program or the status of investigations" conducted by Kay.

Editorial Additions

When first reporting the $13 billion in international aid to help rebuild Iraq, pledged at last month's conference in Madrid, The New York Times in a dispatch on its Web site then described the aid as -- "for the reconstruction of devastated infrastructure systems in Iraq that provide water, power, health care and other services."

But the same story, printed in the next day's paper, described the aid as -- "for reconstruction of water, power, health care and other systems devastated by the American invasion six months ago."

If I Knew Then...

The Howard Dean (search) presidential campaign says that while Dean strongly disagrees with President Bush on most things, Dean whole-heartedly agrees with the President that -- "[one's] younger days were his younger days."

You see, Dean, like the President, has overcome the allure of alcohol. Dean, in his book  Winning Back America, quoted in the New York Daily News, says -- "When I drank, I would drink a lot and do outrageous things ... [but] I realized that what was funny when you're 18 is not very funny when you're thirty. ... Drinking served no useful purpose in my life." And so, he says, he hasn't had a drink in 22 years.

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report