I just read that Rumsfeld will now personally sign the death notices sent to families of killed American troops. I guess this is his way of taking a measure of responsibility, but there was something tragically ironic about the notices being signed by a machine. Something appropriate, and perhaps more honest than Mr. Rumsfeld's signature.

I think it's the inherent duplicity of war that gets me the most. You can't expect people to fight and send their sons to die for a concept like "money", so you have to couch your motives in terms more heroic, like "freedom". And while I don't deny that those high minded concepts must enter into our policies somewhere, I just can't see them as being the overriding compulsion in our war. They're too human, and our government is anything but.