Ahhh... the irony. Quote form Dubya today, "The United States remains strong in our conviction that we must not and will not allow the world's worst leaders to hold the United States and our friends and allies (subject to) blackmail or threaten us with the world's worst weapons."

You know, if you replace "United States" with "Iraq," that sounds awfully familiar.

(Is it just me, or should the President of the US spend less time raising money and more time on the job? It's not like there isn't enough for the president to do, after all! Each successive president does more and more of this nonsense.)

Hey, maybe Saddam is full of it. Maybe the capitulation on inspections IS a ploy to take steam off of the Bush crusade. But wouldn't an effective leader use the opportunity to compromise with the international skeptics who have thusfar been unhappy about the war plans, and get them to agree to nail Saddam down and not let him wiggle out of it this time? THAT is a coalition that could be successful.

The reports that the US is continuing preparations for war unabated only makes us look more and more like the schoolyard bully, and less and less like the "benevolent but tough police officer" image we try to project.