Social Studies (02/06/2004): "A policeman shoots a robber who has killed in the past and who brandishes what seems to be a gun. The gun turns out to be a cellphone. The policeman expects a thorough investigation (and ought to cooperate). In the end, if he is exonerated, it is not because he made no mistake but because his mistake was justified. Reasonable people, facing uncertainty, would have thought they saw a gun.

"George W. Bush and the CIA thought they saw a gun. So did French President Jacques Chirac, who last February warned of Iraq's 'probable possession of weapons of mass destruction.' So did Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, a former Vermont governor, who last February said, 'My personal belief is that Saddam may well possess anthrax and chemical weapons. That being the case, he must be disarmed.' "
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This guy has it right, of course. But the people who would howl for the policeman's skull are also howling for President Bush's. They guy who points a plastic toy gun at a policeman in such circumstances is responsible for what happens to him. So Saddam is responsible for his own disaster and the disaster of his country. Case closed.

Part of our problem is that we are dealinig with the boomers of the Viet Nam era. Somehow it was the fault of the U.S. military when bombs were strapped unto the bodies on young children and sent toward the U. S. lines. Our GI's were the immoral ones for not allowing themselves to be blown up. It never occurred to Jane Fonda and her buddies like John Kerry and others that our enemies were desperately depraved people who wanted us dead.

The world needs to know that Hanoi Jane and her buddies are not, and will not be, in charge of the security of the U.S. We are a very patient people, but you can not tweak our tail forever. One source for the financing of terror has been eliminated. There will be no more checks for the families of sucicide bombers in Israel from Saddam Hussein. That, itself, is worth the war. Let the other two-bit rogue states of the world take notice. We are strong enough to take down Hussein, and open and moral enough to have a debate about it, strong enough to endure partisan and blind quibbling about what is obvious. The two-bit nations should not take that as weakness.