Vermont, where nearly three quarters of residents oppose the Iraq war, has the nation's highest per capita death rate in the conflict. It's a statistic seemingly at odds with the state's reputation as a liberal utopia, a low-stress playground for snowboarders and the escape-from-New York crowd. But with the tally of dead American servicemen and women now past 3,000, the situation in Iraq grim, and President Bush calling for more troops, many Vermonters are asking whether they've already sacrificed too much for a cause whose lofty aims they think may be unreachable.
No one could envy President Bush in trying to sell his new plan for Iraq. He has lost the confidence of the nation, the Congress, and an increasing number of his own Republican Party members, for the inept way we allowed the military triumph in Iraq to disintegrate into an ignominious failure. For the president to admit having made errors in Iraq is fine, but it is also galling because many of the mistakes made there were foreseen and warned of; the warnings fell on utterly deaf ears.
Botulinum is right up there next to anthrax and smallpox on the Department of Homeland Security's short list of potential agents of bioterrorism. But modern medicine has harnessed the neurotoxin's destructive power, turning it into a veritable magic microbullet for both rare neuromuscular diseases and the most common of human afflictions, the furrowed brow. Innovation alone, however, does not explain the rapid conversion of the poison from demon to saint. This could not have happened without the Food and Drug Administration, which enabled the drug's ever expanded use and meteoric public acceptance.
AP - Saddam Hussein's half brother and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court were both hanged before dawn Monday, officials said, two weeks and two days after the former Iraqi dictator was executed in a chaotic scene that has drawn worldwide criticism.
AP - President Bush concedes he isn't popular, and that the war in Iraq isn't either. Yes, progress is overdue and patience is all but gone. Yet none of that changes his view that more U.S. troops are needed to win in Iraq.
AP - Utility crews tried to restore electricity to about 330,000 Missouri households that were still without power following a storm blamed for 21 deaths across four states.
Saddam Hussein's half-brother and the chief judge under his Baath Party regime followed him to the gallows early Monday, hanged for their roles in the killings of 148 men and boys after a 1982 assassination attempt, a defense lawyer said.
Congress cannot reverse last week's decision to send 21,000 more troops to Iraq, President Bush said in an interview intended to rally popular support for his plan.
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