I can write for myself.

We have liberated Iraq. Now we should work to allow them to rule themselves. We should turn their country over to them quickly. We don't have to teach them anything. Civilization was literally invented in Iraq and has continued unbroken there for over 5,000 years - longer than in Egypt or China. Longer than anywhere. They invented bureaucracy, writing, accounting, art, architecture and much more. They are not a struggling third-world country. They know what to do to run their country very efficiently. And they and their corporations should own the oil.

Our government is vindicated. Bush and Rumsfeld are heros. A stunning victory. Now they have an opportunity to show their goal is the liberation of Iraq - and not just the beginning of a series of conquests and a program to dominate the world or create a world empire.

Do I apologize? No reason to. Should peace demonstrators be humbled and shut up? No. This is a democracy and our right to speak goes on. I expect my right-wing friends will try and humiliate those who opposed the war. That is their character.

The danger? That this victory will stir our country to want more victories - to think that we can knock off a half-dozen other dictators around the world. Syria, Iran, North Korea, Turkmenistan and Libya. And the danger in that? War and violence spur more violence and war. What we sow can come home to us. We should not forget - we helped Saddam strengthen his power over the Iraqi people with huge military subsidies in the 1970s and all through the 1980s. I remind my conservative friends of such past follies. Saddam is a product of our past follies.

With this victory we should turn to strengthening the UN and work for a safer world. We have credibility and power - we should use it with discretion. We should use it to back up the UN. Instead I fear we will insult and humiliate France, Germany and other countries who did not support our war. I fear we could become what we supposedly are fighting - an evil empire that dictates to other countries what they must do or face our military.

We should now seriously fight to eliminate terrorism. We should work with all other countries and through the UN. Osama bin Laden is our enemy - not Syria or Iran. And we only need talk to North Korea to calm them down.

And I should now turn this blog back toward local issues.