Charles Krauthammer (sp?) has written yet another great peice for Time magazine, where he asserts that just because we can't take down all the nasty dictators at once doesn't mean we should throw in the towel on all of them.

He accepts the duality of condeming one and condoning the other. Without that option, he asserts, the practical job of getting on in the world would be rendered much more difficult. He also maintains that eventually, all of them will lose "favored dictator" status.

It's not like other nations don't do the same...Canada remained chummy with China while it was slaughtering students, saying that if you simply condemn, and stop all dialogue, then you end up with no diplomatic influence whatsoever.

As has been pointed out in here and elsewhere, Iraq really has remained an issue all along, but most of us lost sight of that. September 11 served notice, I suppose, that the issue is more pressing than anyone thought, save for a few lone voices that went unheard by more than one administration.