The administration, backed by oral statements by Secretary Rumsfeld, has released documents saying that they specifically prohibited torture, in a number of forms, in US facilities where we held Muslim detanies.

Get over it, guys and girls. Whether or not you agree with our invasion of Irag, and acknowledging that some GIs have done some bad things to Iraqi prisoners, we've done a pretty good job of prosecuting this war. We haven't crashed B-52s into downtown Baghdad. And we haven't made a practice of sawing hostages' heads off with knives. Some few people made asses of themselves in Abhu Ghraib, and we're throwing a national fit about it. The Iraqi response, in spite of the fact that we're having spasms about a few embarrassing pictures, is to kidnap civilians and literally saw their heads off(do you get my point?--this ain't the axe or the guillotine. We're talking about sawing a head off with a sheath knife). It's not proportional. Not even close.

Well, they've kidnapped another American. This time they say they're going to treat him the way we treat Iraqi prisoners. God, I hope they do.

Problem is we know they won't....

I'm ranting now. No surprise there.

Seems the Pope had words with President Bush over the incidents in the Iraqi prison. Big Hairy Deal, boys and girls. Yes, some people got out of line and did things they shouldn't have done. And we've already begun the process of pulling them out and administering punishment. But this rises to the point where the world leader of the Catholic Church should admonish our president for the actions of a few very low level military people?

I was raised Catholic and even went to a Catholic college. But I'm not blind. The Pope is so feeble he can't even make it through a mass, yet he refuses to step down. He's so feeble he can't deliver a sermon, yet he takes our president to task for what are really minor incidents. I have to wonder if he has any idea of how murderous Saddam's regime was. And the Islamic response to embarrasing photos of Iraqi prisoners was to saw a man's head off. Hardly tit-for-tat. Any comments on that, John Paul?

I did not support the war in Iraq at the outset. I figured that their problems were just that--their problems. But much has come to the surface since that war began. First and foremost, who can possibly not support our efforts since they liberated that childrens' prison? If for no other reason, I can say that we did the right thing when I saw that. Children held in a prison. I'll say no more, because if you don't understand me by now, you never will.

As far as WMDs, the smart money says that they were evacuated from Iraq during our grace period--when we said "You have X days to comply"--and are now being infiltrated back into the country. There was a gas attack on US soldiers three weeks ago or so, but the media glossed over it because it went against their model that our invasion was unfounded.