There was a broad consensus, here and abroad, that the genocide and racial-cleansing which accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia had to stop, else it might lead to a broader conflagration in the Balkans, and/or a stream of displaced refugees flooding across Central Europe.

There is no such consensus today. With the notable exceptions of the governments of England and Israel, the United States has no widespread support, at home or abroad, for the planned strike against Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein.

In fact, as you may have noticed, there were large global demonstrations this past weekend against the Bush administration's warmongering, and I'm still waiting for someone to explain how the United States got the right to determine who rules which country.

We don't have the right, and the world knows it. Someday, you may know it too.

sp