is the end of one chapter and the beginning of another for Iraq and also for the United States.

If your reaction to reading those words is "dahhh" then pause a moment and consider what you think should or might change with these new chapters - one for the US and one for Iraq. In human affairs we have many opportunities to start anew - to adjust our goals - to learn from our past experience. Most important is how our leaders react. My concern is how George W spoke today.

George W did not congratulate coalition forces - he pointedly praised the US military repeatedly and only made one passing reference to coalition allies. So he is not thinking of working with others but using them for our own ends and glory.

He says that now Saddam will have to answer to justice for his atrocities of the past. Well, so should we, the United States, for our conservative political forces - the Reagan administration - supported Saddam, sold him weapons and winked at his atrocities for many years. We wanted him to attack Iran and we did not care what he did to his own people. We share in the guilt for Saddam's atrocities. We created this tyrant in the first place - a fact our news media do not deny but do ignore.

He said those Iraqis opposing us are a "direct threat to the American people". Tilt. We are in their country. Many who oppose our actions want a free and democratic Iraq. Again we have the chance to allow the Iraqis to take charge of their own country. We again can act to help a conquered country or to establish our own domination of Iraq for American mega corporations. But - those Iraqis who disagree with our policies are not thugs, terrorists or bandits. This same attitude by Bush is shown to we citizens who oppose his policies.

Wolf Blitzer is crowing and being a generally arrogant ass on CNN. He keeps guessing how different groups are humbled - the French or the residents of Tikrit. It is this attitude that the US can do no wrong that will get us into more trouble than we can handle.

We should all be relieved and grateful that Saddam is captured. But we should also be informed of the brutal dictator we are right now supporting in a country just north of Afghanistan who is committing atrocities on his own people. After we no longer need him will we invade his country and capture him and display him to the world and crow about our ridding the world of evil tyrants? What sort of charade is this?