The Sad Story of General Colin PowellSnookered....and snookered by a gang of lesser men and a woman. Why did he allow himself to be used and humiliated is for historians to write about. The General himself has not said much but there are hints about a good soldier doing his job. If that gives him consolation, fine. However, his name will no longer be associated with honor and dignity. President Bush and his amoral aides used him and then unceremoniously pushed him out. The Post has published excerpts from Karen DeYoung's forthcoming book "Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell". The final paragraph, about Colin Powell's last meeting with the president, tells it all."The session ended with a cordial handshake, and the secretary returned to the State Department. 'That was really strange,' he reported to Wilkerson. 'The president didn't know why I was there.' "Excerpts:ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2004, eight days after the president he served was elected to a second term, Secretary of State Colin Powell received a telephone call from the White House at his State Department office. The caller was not President Bush but Chief of Staff Andrew Card, and he got right to the point."The president would like to make a change," Card said, using a time-honored formulation that avoided the words "resign" or "fire." He noted briskly that there had been some discussion of having Powell remain until after Iraqi elections scheduled for the end of January, but that the president had decided to take care of all Cabinet changes sooner rather than later. Bush wanted Powell's resignation letter dated two days hence, on Friday, November 12, Card said, although the White House expected him to stay at the State Department until his successor was confirmed by the Senate. * He artfully brushed aside inquiries about the many published accounts of deep ideological schisms that had rent Bush's national security team throughout the first term and the private humiliations he reportedly had endured at the hands of powerful colleagues. ...

* Bob Woodward's "State of Denial" * Foley's FollyDr. Kissinger, who never met a brutal dictator he didn't like, reportedly advised President and VP Cheney to remain in Iraq until victory is achieved. Did he define "victory"; did he mention the costs in human terms ? The Washington Post has published excerpts from Bob Woodward's new book State of Denial - Bush At War Part III:"In May, President Bush spoke in Chicago and gave a characteristically upbeat forecast: "Years from now, people will look back on the formation of a unity government in Iraq as a decisive moment in the story of liberty, a moment when freedom gained a firm foothold in the Middle East and the forces of terror began their long retreat.Two days later, the intelligence division of the Joint Chiefs of Staff circulated a secret intelligence assessment to the White House that contradicted the president's forecast." In a column in The Washington Post on Aug. 12, 2005, titled "Lessons for an Exit Strategy," Kissinger wrote, 'Victory over the insurgency is the only meaningful exit strategy.' He delivered the same message directly to Bush, Cheney and Hadley at the White House. "Victory had to be the goal, he told all. Don't let it happen again. Don't give an inch, or else the media, the Congress and the American culture of avoiding hardship will walk you back.>He said the eventual outcome in Iraq was more important than Vietnam had been. A radical Islamic or Taliban-style government in Iraq would be a model that could challenge the internal stability of key countries in the Middle East and elsewhere.Kissinger told Rice that in Vietnam they didn't have the time, focus, energy or support at home to get the politics in place. That's why it had collapsed like a house of cards. He urged that the Bush administration get the politics right, both in Iraq and on the home front. Partially withdrawing troops had its own dangers. Even entertaining the idea of withdrawing any troops could create momentum for an exit that was less than victory.The Fall of Mark FoleyThe timing couldn't have been worse. Less than forty days before mid-term elections, the resignation of Florida's six-term Republican Representative Mark Foley is bad news for GOP leaders in Congress. What did Majority Leader Boehner and Speaker Hastert know and when did they know it? Details published in the Washington Post indicate that the story has got legs. The 'holier than thou' Republicans are squirming. They deserve it. "The resignation rocked the Capitol, and especially Foley's GOP colleagues, as lawmakers were rushing to adjourn for at least six weeks. "House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Washington Post last night that he had learned this spring of inappropriate "contact" between Foley and a 16-year-old page. Boehner said he then told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). Boehner later contacted The Post and said he could not remember whether he talked to Hastert. It was not immediately clear what actions Hastert took. His spokesman had said earlier that the speaker did not know of the sexually charged online exchanges between Foley and the boy."

Iraq, Stem Cells and Abortion * "In Jesus' Camp" A hypocrite of the worst kind, one who uses the name of God to justify his acts. From Iraq and terrorism to debates about stem cells and abortion, there are discernible gaps between the truth and President Bush's positions.Michael Kinsley in the Post:Bush, as we know, believes deeply and earnestly that human life begins at conception. Even tiny embryos composed of a half-dozen microscopic cells, he thinks, have the same right to life as you and I do. That is why he cannot bring himself to allow federal funding for research on new lines of embryonic stem cells or even for other projects in labs where stem cell research is going on. Even though these embryos are obtained from fertility clinics, where they would otherwise be destroyed anyway, and even though he appears to have no objection to the fertility clinics themselves, where these same embryos are manufactured and destroyed by the thousands -- nevertheless, the much smaller number of embryos needed and destroyed in the process of developing cures for diseases such as Parkinson's are, in effect, tiny little children whose use in this way constitutes killing a human being and therefore is intolerable.But President Bush does not believe that the deaths of all little children as a result of U.S. policy are, in effect, murder. He thinks that some, while very unfortunate, are also inevitable and essential.You know who I mean. Close to 50,000 Iraqi civilians have died so far as a direct result of our invasion and occupation of their country, in order to liberate them. The numbers are increasing as the country slides into chaos: more than 6,500 in July and August alone. These numbers are from reliable sources and are not seriously contested. They include many who were tortured and then killed, along with others blown up less personally by car bombs and suicide bombers. The number does not include the hundreds of thousands who have died prematurely as a result of a decade and a half of war and embargos imposed on the Iraqi economy. Nor does it include soldiers on both sides, most of whom are innocent, too. Last week the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan surpassed the number of people who died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.Bush is right, of course, that the inevitable loss of innocent life in wartime cannot be a reason not to go to war or a reason not to fight that war in a way intended to win. Eggs, omelets and all that. "Collateral damage" should be a consideration weighed in the balance. But there is no formula to determine when you have the balance right. It does seem to me that both our wars in Iraq were started and conducted with insufficient consideration for the cost in innocent blood. Callousness, naivete and isolation -- isolation of the decision makers from democratic accountability and isolation of citizens from the consequences, or even the awareness, of what is being done in their name -- all have played a role. I don't see anything coming out of this war that is worth 50,000 innocent lives, although a case can be made, I guess.But it is hard -- indeed, I would say it is impossible -- to reconcile Bush's absolutism over allegedly human life when it is a clump of unknowing, unfeeling cells with his sophisticated, if not cavalier, attitude toward the loss of innocent human life when it is children and adults in Iraq.'Tongues of Fire'It was depressing to read Ann Hornaday's review of the documentary film, Jesus Camp. I am glad that all the children I know are growing up normally, like most other American kids, and not being indoctrinated into the narrow world of evangelical christians. To paraphrase T.S. Eliot: Between the madrassas and Jesus Camp 'falls the shadow for thine is the kingdom'."Jesus Camp" opens with an unsettling sequence, during which young Christians -- dressed in camouflage and with their faces painted brown and green -- enact a warlike ritual dedicating themselves to fighting for God. Soon after, we meet the film's stars: 12-year-old Levi, who wears his hair cut short except for a rat's tail, declares he was saved when he was 5 "because I wanted more out of life," and now aims to be a preacher; Rachael, 9, who longs to be an evangelist and is practicing spreading the Word at her local bowling alley; and Tory, 10, who loves to dance but shamefully admits that sometimes she doesn't dance only for Jesus, but also "for the flesh." And we also meet Becky Fischer, the outgoing, charismatic leader of a youth ministry in the kids' home state of Missouri, who serves as a counselor at a summer camp called Kids on Fire in (wait for it) Devil's Lake, N.D.Bookended with news reports about the resignation of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and the announcement of the nomination of Samuel Alito to take her place, "Jesus Camp" takes as its subject the most colorful arm of Christianity, that of charismatic Pentecostalism. Although firm numbers are difficult to nail down, research from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life indicates that Pentecostalism may account for between 15 and 20 percent of evangelicals, who number around 52 million adults in this country, and who in recent years have emerged as a powerful political force."Jesus Camp" is composed of images of kids being radicalized spiritually and politically that will be heartening or chilling depending on the viewer. There are moments sure to set secular humanists' teeth on edge: when Tory's mother, who educates her kids at home, dismisses global warming and declares once and for all that creationism provides "the only possible answer to all the questions"; or when Becky excoriates Harry Potter to nervous-looking youngsters ("Warlocks are enemies of God!"). And it's hard not to feel a little frightened watching Becky and her fellow leaders goad their young charges into speaking in tongues, or joining in chants like "This means war!" and smashing coffee cups that symbolize secularized government.

A Republican "for old reasons" - Is anyone listening ? Not for the first time, John Danforth, former Republican Senator from Missouri, an ordained Episcopal priest, spoke out about the Christian Right. "CHICAGO. Sept. 27 -- The potency of the Christian right in the Republican Party is limited, former senator John C. Danforth of Missouri is telling audiences this month. A lifelong Republican moderate disturbed by his party's direction, he contends that the political center has a future." In the cacophony about red herrings -- gay marriage, women's right to choose, and school prayers -- Danforth's warning is not likely to have much impact. Fundamentalist Christian groups have tasted power. For the first time, they have an ally in the White House who is openly supportive of them. Thomas Jefferson's "Wall of separation between church and state" has been eroded. Pulpits are increasingly being used for political campaigns. They are not going to relinquish their hard-earned influence. Tolerance has no place in their belief. They are waiting for the Third Awakening....and Armageddon.Excerpts - The Washington PostDescribing himself as a "a Republican for the old reasons," Danforth, 70, is promoting a new book that describes religion as a divisive force in the United States today and accuses the religious right and its political supporters of creating a sectarian party."I'm trying to shed light on it," Danforth told a gathering of more than 100 people at Chicago's Union League Club on Tuesday, ". . . but I'm really encouraging people to get mad, to speak out on this and express themselves. That's when politics will change."The GOP leadership habitually strives to please its base at the expense of meaningful compromise, he maintains, proving to be neither humble Christians nor effective politicians. His reasoning holds that social conservatives cannot prevail because a majority of Americans do not share their views or appreciate their style.

The caption for Polly Toynbee's comments in The Guardian about Tony Blair's speech at Labour Party conference in Manchester on September 26th reads: "Charm and eloquence. But a missed chance" As the British Prime Minister begins preparations for his exit a year from now there can be no question about his 'charm and eloquence'.....and intellectual brillance. Qualities that are sadly missing in our current president. Yet, Mr. Blair's decision to become an unquestioning ally of President Bush in the war against Iraq is the primary reason for his loss of support and popularity both at home and abroad. The unfolding events in Iraq exposed facts that portrayed an unwholesome complicity by Blair.I remember being in England shortly after the Labour Party came to power. On May 1, 1997, Tony Charles Lynton Blair (born May 6,1953) led the Labour Party to its biggest ever general election victory. The excitement and enthusiasm for change were palpable. After 11 years of Margaret Thatcher and the Tories, the British people wanted change. Mr. Blair didn't let them down -- not then. Although the lies and fabricated reports about Iraq were mostly concocted by the neocons in America, Mr. Blair emerged tarnished because of his role in championing them. It must hurt.Polly Toynbee, The Guardian, September 26, 2006Yet they know why he must go, for his winning days are over. Many wished he had said goodbye right here, right now, sudden and decisive. These delegates have seen their Labour stronghold councils fall, long-time Labour cities lost, Wales and Scotland in peril, local parties near defunct for lack of members - all poisoned by Iraq and that wider mistrust it came to symbolise.The greatest moments video to a handclapping hall left an ache of nostalgia for what 10 hard years in office has done to the man, to the party and probably to themselves.Can they recapture the spirit of the early days? Whatever Gordon Brown will be, he has no miracle elixir for the party's lost youth and innocence.Full text of Blair's speech (BBC)The Washington Post reported:Blair, 53, recently said he would resign within a year. Pressure in his own party has been building for him to make way for a new leader. Since he became prime minister in 1997, his sky-high popularity ratings have plummeted because of domestic scandals, fatigue with a third-term government, his backing of the Iraq war and his closeness to President Bush.But Blair won a sustained standing ovation after a televised address that seemed like the beginning of the country's goodbye to him. "Of course, it's hard to let go," he said. Many in the audience dabbed tears. One held a handwritten sign that said "Too Young to Retire."

The War President and his 'Mission Accomplished' (May 1, 2003)The president grieves in private. Maybe he does but I find it hard to believe just as I doubt the claim that this summer he read The Stranger by Albert Camus. The casualties mount and reports about the deception foisted upon the American public to sell the war in Iraq continue to surface. Latest numbers (U.S. Soldiers): September 1-25: 63 Total todate: 2705 When the president appeared on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, against the backdrop of a large banner reading 'Mission Accomplished' the U.S. casualties were 42. Then there was his "Bring them on" challenge to the insurgents on July 2, 2003. Since then 2498 soldiers have died in Iraq. Peter Baker in the Post: "FALMOUTH, Maine -- They sat on two frayed chairs in a teacher's lounge, the president and the widow, just the two of them so close that their knees were almost touching.She was talking about her husband, the soldier who died in a far-off war zone. Tears rolled down her face as she mentioned two children left fatherless. His eyes welled up, too. He hugged her, held her face, kissed her cheek. "I am so sorry for your loss," he kept repeating."She told him she considers him responsible for her husband's death and begged him to bring home the troops. "It's time to put our pride behind us and stop the bleeding, for all of us," she recalled saying. The president demurred, unwilling to debate a mourning woman. "We see things differently," he said.But Hildi Halley, a self-described liberal antiwar activist who met with President Bush in Maine last month, said she believes he felt her grief. "It wasn't just a crocodile tear," she said in an interview at her home. "I felt like I moved him. I don't think he's going to wake up tomorrow and say, 'Oh my gosh, I've been wrong this whole time and I'm going to change all my policies because of my meeting with this woman.' I just hope that with each soldier, he remembers my pain."He has a lot of pain to remember. Now more than five years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Bush has served as a wartime president longer than any occupant of the White House since Lyndon B. Johnson. He has presided over more U.S. military casualties than any since Richard M. Nixon. While he travels the country defending his policy and arguing to stay the course in Iraq, he also confronts the human burdens of wartime leadership.The two sides of Bush as commander in chief can be hard to reconcile. His public persona gives little sense that he dwells on the costs of war. He does not seem to agonize as Johnson did, or even as his father, George H.W. Bush, did before the Persian Gulf War. While he pays tribute to those who have fallen, the president strives to show resolve and avoid displays that might be seen as weak or doubting. His refusal to attend military funerals, while taking long Texas vacations and extended bicycle rides, strikes some critics as callous indifference.Home they brought her warrior dead, is the title of a poem by Alfred Lord TennysonAngel D. Mercado-Velazquez, 24, Army Staff Sergeant, Sep 01, 2006Cliff Golla, 21, Marine Lance Corporal, Sep 01, 2006Eugene Alex, 32, Army Staff Sergeant, Sep 02, 2006Edwin Anthony Andino Jr., 23, Army Private 1st Class, Sep 03, 2006Justin W. Dreese, 21, Army Private 1st Class, Sep 03, 2006Richard J. Henkes II, 32, Army Sergeant 1st Class, Sep 03, 2006Nicholas A. Madaras, 19, Army Private 1st Class, Sep 03, 2006Jason L. Merrill, 22, Army Sergeant, Sep 03, 2006Ralph N. Porras, 36, Army Sergeant, Sep 03, 2006Shane P. Harris, 23, Marine Lance Corporal, Sep 03, 2006Philip A. Johnson, 19, Marine Lance Corporal, Sep 03, 2006Ryan E. Miller, 21, Marine Private, Sep 03, 2006Hannah L. Gunterman, 20, Army Private 1st Class, Sep 04, 2006Marshall A. Gutierrez, 41, Army Lieutenant Colonel, Sep 04, 2006Germaine L. Debro, 33, Army National Guard Sergeant, Sep 04, 2006Jared M. Shoemaker, 29, Marine Reserve Corporal, Sep 04, 2006Eric P. Valdepenas, 21, Marine Reserve Lance Corporal, Sep 04, 2006Christopher Walsh, 30, Naval Reserve Petty Officer 2nd Class, Sep 04, 2006John A. Carroll, 26, Army Sergeant, Sep 06, 2006Jeremy R. Shank, 18, Army Private 1st Class, Sep 06, 2006Luis A. Montes, 22, Army Sergeant, Sep 07, 2006David J. Ramsey, 27, Army Specialist, Sep 07, 2006Vincent M. Frassetto, 21, Marine Private 1st Class, Sep 07, 2006David W. Gordon, 23, Army Sergeant, Sep 08, 2006Anthony P. Seig, 19, Army Private 1st Class, Sep 09, 2006Johnathan Benson, 21, Marine Corporal, Sep 09, 2006Alexander Jordan, 31, Army Specialist, Sep 10, 2006Harley D. Andrews, 22, Army Specialist, Sep 11, 2006Emily J.T. Perez, 23, Army 2nd Lieutenant, Sep 12, 2006Matthew C. Mattingly, 30, Army Captain, Sep 13, 2006Jeffrey Shaffer, 21, Army Private 1st Class, Sep 13, 2006Marcus A. Cain, 20, Army Corporal, Sep 14, 2006Jennifer M. Hartman, 21, Army Sergeant, Sep 14, 2006Russell M. Makowski, 23, Army Specialist, Sep 14, 2006Aaron A. Smith, 31, Army Sergeant, Sep 14, 2006David Thomas Weir, 23, Army Sergeant, Sep 14, 2006Clint E. Williams, 24, Army Sergeant, Sep 14, 2006Ryan A. Miller, 19, Marine Lance Corporal, Sep 14, 2006Cesar A. Granados, 21, Army Corporal, Sep 15, 2006David S. Roddy, 32, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class, Sep 16, 2006David J. Davis, 32, Army Sergeant, Sep 17, 2006Adam L. Knox, 21, Army Sergeant, Sep 17, 2006James R. Worster, 24, Army Sergeant, Sep 18, 2006Robert Thomas Callahan, 22, Army Specialist, Sep 19, 2006Ashley L. Henderson Huff, 23, Army 1st Lieutenant, Sep 19, 2006Jared Raymond, 20, Army Specialist, Sep 19, 2006Eric Kavanagh, 20, Army Private, Sep 20, 2006Robb Gordon Needham, 51, Army Master Sergeant, Sep 20, 2006Charles Jason Jones, 29, Army National Guard Sergeant 1st Class, Sep 20, 2006Yull Estrada Rodriguez, 21, Marine Corporal, Sep 20, 2006Christopher M. Zimmerman, 28, Marine Sergeant, Sep 20, 2006Allan R. Bevington, 22, Army Sergeant, Sep 21, 2006Howard S. March Jr., 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Sep 24, 2006Rene Martinez, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Sep 24, 2006Source: Iraq Coalition Casualties

Expect Spin, Lot of SpinDetails of a National Intelligence Estimate prepared in April of this year make a big hole in the Bush Administration's support of the war and occupation of Iraq. "The war in Iraq has become a primary recruitment vehicle for violent Islamic extremists, motivating a new generation of potential terrorists around the world whose numbers may be increasing faster than the United States and its allies can reduce the threat, U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded." Bush-Cheney and champions of the misadventure in Iraq must be scrambling to come up with spin -- that is something they are never shy of. Not going to be easy. "Each NIE is reviewed and approved for dissemination by the National Intelligence Board (NIB), which is comprised of the DNI and other senior Intelligence Community leaders within the Intelligence Community."Excerpts from the Washington Post:A 30-page National Intelligence Estimate completed in April cites the "centrality" of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the insurgency that has followed, as the leading inspiration for new Islamic extremist networks and cells that are united by little more than an anti-Western agenda. It concludes that, rather than contributing to eventual victory in the global counterterrorism struggle, the situation in Iraq has worsened the U.S. position, according to officials familiar with the classified document."It's a very candid assessment," one intelligence official said yesterday of the estimate, the first formal examination of global terrorist trends written by the National Intelligence Council since the March 2003 invasion. "It's stating the obvious." ...

Goodbye Summer Another summer is behind us. For many of us the change of seasons means different things, often depending on where we live, where we grew up. Perhaps summer is missed more by those who live in harsh climes. Thoughts of long winters can dampen the spirits. John Donne wrote about the "fear that summer will be short" . A few days back, during dinner at a friend's house the guests talked of the fleeting summer. No doubt next year -- next summer -- we'll feel the same way. ...

The article about former AP Photographer Bilal Hussein exemplifies what happens when U.S. military authorities in Iraq suspect someone of being allied to insurgents. Bilal Hussein's story was published in the Washington Post because Tom Curley, Head of the Associated Press wrote about it. It can safely be assumed that there are others. "Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi photographer who helped the Associated Press win a Pulitzer Prize last year, is now in his sixth month in a U.S. Army prison in Iraq. He doesn't understand why he's there, and neither do his AP colleagues. The Army says it thinks Bilal has too many contacts among insurgents. He has taken pictures the Army thinks could have been made only with the connivance of insurgents. So Bilal himself must be one, too, or at least a sympathizer."It is a measure of just how dangerous and disorienting Iraq has become that suspicions such as these are considered adequate grounds for locking up a man and throwing away the key.After more than five months of trying to bring Bilal's case into the daylight, AP is now convinced the Army doesn't care whether Bilal is or isn't an insurgent. The Army doesn't have to care. Bilal is off the street, and the military says it doesn't consider itself accountable to any judicial authority that could question his guilt.But Bilal's incarceration delivers a further bonus. He is no longer free to circulate in his native Fallujah or in Ramadi, taking photographs that coalition commanders would prefer not to see published.Anbar province is a hot zone in a hot country. Violence and lawlessness there have been a special problem for U.S. forces nearly since they arrived in Iraq, which means the flow of breaking news has been continuous, much of it bad.U.S. journalists are severely limited in their ability to move safely, make themselves understood and develop sources in such areas. AP has learned to overcome those limitations, using techniques honed over decades of covering sectarian confrontation and bloodshed in the Middle East.It has long been AP practice to hire and train local people in the agency's permanent international bureaus. Many become highly skilled career journalists who remain with the Associated Press for decades. Several are second-generation staffers. Their work has never been more important to the Associated Press and the global audience that relies on our reporting.Without their access and insight into what is happening in their countries and communities, our understanding of the history being made there every day would be shallow and one-dimensional. It would also be far more vulnerable to control and spin by "official" sources.Both official and unofficial parties on every side of a conflict try to discredit or silence news they don't like. That is certainly the case in Iraq, where journalists are routinely harassed, defamed, beaten and kidnapped. At last count, 80 had been killed.Bilal Hussein is part of the latest generation of Associated Press hires in the Middle East. He was a shopkeeper in Fallujah, selling mobile phones and computers. Although he had a degree from the Baghdad Institute of Technology, it was the best opportunity available in the fractured Iraqi economy.AP first hired him as a translator and driver. He proved smart and trustworthy, and was already comfortable with the phones, laptops and cameras that are tools of the journalist's trade. Within months, he was taking professional-quality pictures, including one of insurgents engaged with coalition forces that was part of AP's Pulitzer Prize-winning photography entry last year.Bilal has shared the hardships of all Iraqis in disputed areas -- hardships that are worse for journalists, whose job is to get as close as they can to places where guns and bombs are being used. His home has been riddled with gunfire. His family has fled. At least once he had to ditch his camera equipment to run for his life.He faces what may be greater dangers now. From prison, he has told his attorneys that he fears he is a marked man among the detainees, who now know he is a journalist working for a Western news service. Meanwhile, agents of the most powerful country on Earth have labeled him an enemy. They say they have evidence to satisfy themselves, and don't need to prove it to anyone else.As the organization that handed Bilal the camera that helped put him where he is today, the Associated Press cannot turn its back on him. We cannot dismiss Bilal's insistence that he is not an insurgent solely on the strength of the unexamined suspicions offered by the U.S. military.If Bilal has done something wrong, the Iraqi courts stand ready to try him. Iraqi authorities have asked more than once that he and other Iraqi citizens in prolonged U.S. military custody be turned over to them for due process. We ask the same.The writer (Tom Curley) is president and chief executive of the Associated Press.

Between the late John Ford's classic films to the outsourcing of torture by the Bush Administration there lies a lot of American history. Harold Meyerson's eloquent column ought to be a must read for those who are unsure about the president's insistence on being permitted to continue torture of prisoners by methods that contravene Geneva Conventions. "As events would have it, though, our nation is led by men who have carefully avoided both war and literature. By men devoid of a sense of the nation's and their own moral fallibility. By men who have led us into a moral desert and aren't even looking for a way back home." See Naomi Klein's article in The Guardian. Dec.10,2005. "The US has used torture for decades. All that's new is the openness about it"Into A Moral DesertDefend civilization by becoming as barbaric as its enemies, Ford suggests, and you are no longer really part of that civilization. Or perhaps you are, but that civilization has lost some of its ideals, its raison d'être, in the process. ...