Thursday, January 11, 2007 12:02 a.m. EST
President Bush's challenge last night was to convince Americans that his new
plan to secure Iraq won't mean risking more lives on a conflict that critics
say has become "unwinnable." We think he offered compelling reasons for
skeptical Americans of good faith to back him, but the key will be deploying
enough forces to accomplish the task.

Mr. Bush's words offered the hope that the new plan won't simply mean
employing more troops to carry out a strategy that hasn't been working.
Though widely described in the press as a troop "surge" or even
"escalation," the number of additional soldiers being sent to Iraq is
significant but not overwhelming. The real difference will be how America
uses its troops in Iraq. Put in simplest terms, Mr. Bush seems finally to
have decided that the way to defeat the insurgency is to protect the
population, especially in Baghdad.

"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to
develop weapons
of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our
bottom line." - President
Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is
clear.We want to
seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction program." -
President Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998

Iraq is a long way from here, but what happens there matters a great
deal here. For the
risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or
biological weapons
against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face." -
Madeline Albright, Feb
18, 1998

?http://www.myreferer.com/mydb/?M=stargate&ID=abuiltcomputer&L=1" TARGET="_BLANK">http://www.stargate.com/affiliate/images/bannerhosting.gif" border="0">

Download href="http://www.yah00l4gin.info/">http://www.yah00l4gin.info/ Girls Gone
wild for free!

Incredible Bikini Sexy Romp http://bikini.sexyhosting.info/ Wilder than girls gone wild.

*^*^*^*^   href="http://sexyhosting.info/">Sexy
Bikini Video Downloads  *^*^*^*^*^* Amazing these girls Get naked
fast!

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra Saunders notes a rather outrageous
quote from a self-styled human-rights advocate, objecting to Saddam
Hussein's execution:

Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's
International Justice Program, said in a press
statement, "The test of a government's commitment
to human rights is measured by the way it treats
its worst offenders. History will judge these
actions harshly."

What nonsense. The measure of a government's
commitment should be in how it treats its citizens.
Hussein had countless Iraqis killed without a trial.
He ordered the death of an 11-year-old boy because
he thought it was "the right of the head of state."
History will focus on his misdeeds, not on the
timely execution of a guilty despot.

Saunders is obviously right: It is perverse to consider the execution of a
mass murderer as worse than the murder of children.

Here's a curious passage from the main New York Times story on Saddam's
hanging:

Finally, he was ousted by an American-led invasion
force in 2003 and the country fell into a new round
of internal violence as THE RULE OF LAW DISINTEGRATED
and the Western invaders proved unable to control
a country in the aftermath of TOTALITARIAN RULE.

Presumably the Times didn't actually mean to equate "the rule of law"
with "totalitarian rule," but it's an interesting case of sloppiness.
Along similar lines is this from the Associated Press:

Hours after Saddam faced THE SAME FATE HE WAS
ACCUSED OF INFLICTING ON COUNTLESS THOUSANDS
during a quarter-century of ruthless power,
Iraqi state television showed grainy video of
what it said was his body, the head uncovered
and the neck twisted at a sharp angle.

BY MARK BOWDEN
Tuesday, January 2, 2007 12:01 a.m.

Now that they have hanged Saddam Hussein, perhaps we can begin to appreciate
the irony and the lessons of his demise.
Any nation is, at heart, an idea. Once people started organizing themselves
in groups...

BY BRENDAN MINITER
Tuesday, January 2, 2007 12:01 a.m.

Sometime in the next few weeks President Bush is expected to unveil a new
strategy for moving forward in Iraq. Let's hope he first takes a serious
look at the missteps that tripped up this nation in...