You lucky dogs. I'll be absent from this board for the next couple of weeks. Now I know you're all disappointed to hear that. Hopefully someone else will answer the clarion call and keep people here informed about the more difficult news from Iraq rather than repeating Bush-first mantra.

But while I am away, I'll ask you to ponder the following question: "Where are the hundreds of tons of chemsical and biological weapons Mr. Bush said Iraq possessed?" I suspect when I return, this question will remain unanswered.

Hopefully, the next two weeks will bring some reduction in the continuing violence in Iraq. One hopes that Mr. Bush will finally get it together and no longer have our young men and women in uniform in such precarious and vulnerable conditions.

The bottom line is that, regardless of how one feels about the call to war, and whether or not the Bush administration was entirely honest about the reasons for doing so, we still do have American soldiers in harm's way in Iraq.

Today, Mr. Bush "reaassured" us that things will be okay. I hope so. But the fact remains - Iraq is a nation of 22 million people with widely diverse views about our presence there. It only takes a small handful of those create havoc and doubt. That's the unfortunate reality. I would hope that none of us here forgets this. I hope Mr. Bush fully understands this.