President Bush suggested yesterday that the U.S.-led military defeat of Iraq had spurred concessions by North Korea, and he said he sees increasing chances for nuclear-control talks that include Pyongyang.

--from today's Washington Post

In Baghdad, three girls died in a missile strike weeks ago, but family members are still struggling to tell their father. It is becoming clear that several hundred Iraqis died in coalition attacks.

--from today's New York Times

In Saddam Hussein's Iraq, children were tortured in front of their parents, as a way of compelling the parents to accept Saddam's total dominance of the country. The U.S. war against Iraq is, of course, not comparable in any way: We would never harm children to motivate adults (even though innocent children were killed and maimed and now we boast that the carnage has cowed a regime halfway around the world). We would not keep the brutality up for years (even though we now suggest that we may wage similar wars in Syria, North Korea, and Iran). And we would never bring harm to innocent young people in a naked attempt to cling to power (even though we specifically describe these overseas wars as wars of self-defense and national security). So it's obvious that our wars are nothing whatsoever like the brutality of Saddam -- isn't it?