BTW, the IMO ISPS code is a standard International Ship and Port Facility Security code published by the International Maritime Organization.

T, thanks for the reasonable reply. The fact that some people -- and it was far from "the world" -- believed the WMD myth does not justify acting on it as fact without due diligence. In failing, through incuriousity or predisposition toward war, to exercise that diligence, Rove and Bush essentially own the responsibility for the invasion of Iraq. It took only one signature to send our troops across the line from Kuwait. Absent the WMD mythology, the unilateral invasion of a sovereign nation-state is an action of extreme militarism which the U.S. claims not to believe in -- examples of Mexico, Cuba, and the Phillipines notwithstanding.

There is no question that Sadaam brought his troubles on himself. There is no question the world is better without him. If we manage to herd the cats of Baghdad into some for of reasonable political body, we will have done the world a service -- I do not disagree with any of these ideas.

But starting a war without grounds is NOT a prerogative our country has granted the President, and his actions were irresponsible and impolitic, to put the politest terms I can think of on them. The rationalizations for the war were excuses, not genuine causes for war; and going to war in the absence of due causes adequately substantiated is the act of a nutcase.

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