CNN reports: Sources: Congress to hear Iraq had 'active WMD program':

The conclusion that Iraq had an "active WMD program" is based on recent interrogations of Iraqi regime officials, as well as on a series of documents that the United States has seized and now analyzed. Those documents show that Iraq had plans in place to destroy weapons stockpiles quickly; shift dual-use plants from commercial to weapons production as part of a deception effort; and reconstitute its weapons if it had to destroy them in the face of inspections or a U.S. attack.

After a meeting this Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, President Bush called on Arab states "to reject the culture of extremism and violence" that is a fundamental cause of terrorism. Unfortunately, the president's call will fall on deaf ears.

Palestinian culture is a culture of death. In this culture it is considered proper and moral to dress children in the garb of suicide bombers, to idolize those who kill themselves in the process of murdering women and children, to teach in school that Jews are evil and must be swept into the sea, and to govern through economic and political corruption, and through torture and murder. Palestinian culture is irrational and dangerous and not open to reason.

Israel, like any free state, has the right, if attacked, to destroy such an enemy. The blame for the violence rests not with the culture of life defending itself but with those death seekers who believe only in destruction. When will Americans and their media get it?

Recommended Reading:

• Israel Has A Moral Right To Its Life by Yaron Brook
  Morally and militarily, Israel is America's frontline in the war on terrorism. If America is swayed by Arafat's latest empty rhetoric, and allows him to continue threatening Israel, our own campaign against terrorism becomes sheer hypocrisy and will, ultimately, fail.
• The Purpose of a Palestinian State by David Harsanyi
  "There is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians and Lebanese; we are all members of the same nation. Solely for political reasons are we careful to stress our identity as Palestinians. Since a separate State of Palestine would be an extra weapon in Arab hands to fight Zionism with."
• Allowing Israel to Destroy the PLO Helps Defend the U.S. by Andrew Bernstein
  For several compelling reasons the United States must desist from restraining Israel. The destruction of the PLO will weaken terrorists who hate the United States. It will strengthen Israel, our sole ally in the area, who will no longer have to live under the daily threat of terrorism.
• Israel or the Palestinians? Making the Moral Choice by Wayne Dunn
  Israel is doing what a free nation's government is supposed to do when its citizens' lives are threatened with force: it's responding with force.
• Moral Inversion in the Middle East by David Holcberg
  When the Israelis found themselves being attacked by groups of children and youngsters, and by adult snipers and shooters hiding behind them, they had no other recourse but to defend themselves and shoot back.

Good evening. Reports that the former Italian leader Benito Mussolini is "dead" and "hanging" "upside down" at a petrol station were received with scepticism in Rome today. Our "reporter" - whoops, scrub the inverted commas round "reporter", the scare-quotes key on the typewriter's jammed again. Anyway our reporter Andrew "Gilligan" is "on" the scene "in" Milan. Andrew...

Andrew Gilligan: I'm leaning on a lamp post at the corner of the street in case a certain little duce swings by, and I don't see any dead dictators, John. But then the Allies have a history of making these premature announcements...

He's just above your head, Andrew. I know you don't like to do wide shots, but, if the camera pulls back, I think you'll find that's definitely a finger tickling the back of your ear...

AG: Well, there you are. He's not hanging from a petrol station, is he? He's hanging from a rope attached to a girder on the forecourt of a petrol station. We've become all too familiar with the Allies playing fast and loose with the facts.

Yes, indeed, Andrew. And contradictory reports that he was hanging from a lamp-post have led some observers to question the accuracy of the intelligence on which the "liberation" of Milan went ahead.

Read the rest at the UK Telegraph's website.

The current debate raging over whether or not to send U.S. troops to Liberia reveals a lot about leftists and conservatives. While leftists clamor for U.S. military intervention, conservatives oppose it, but only meekly. Why?

Morality, the leftists believe, consists not in defending one's interests but in sacrificing them. Accordingly, they advocate U.S. military intervention only when no U.S. self-interest exists (such as in Somalia, Bosnia and now Liberia).

Conservatives, who generally uphold military intervention when in the interests of the country, are morally disarmed by their own altruistic beliefs. They are unable to resist the leftists' calls to sacrifice for the needy (abroad or at home).

Thus, as long as altruism remains the prevailing morality among our politicians, Americans can't count on either the right or the left to defend their interests. Only when self-interest replaces altruism as a principle of domestic and foreign policy, will Americans be safe in their inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Governor Pataki would be well advised to reconsider his support for Daniel Libeskind ["Pataki Backs Libeskind on Tower," page 1, July 22]. Mr. Libeskind has actually built few projects, none of them office buildings or in any way comparable to the proposed World Trade Center. A Times of London reviewer called his modernist British Museum "a disaster for the Victoria and Albert in particular and for civilization in general."His WTC design was not overly popular, either. During last year's LMDC survey, more respondents chose "none of the above" than either the Libeskind (25%) or Think (33%) designs.

One might acquire a sense of the man by pondering the following quotation from a collection of poetry that he wrote, Fishing From the Pavement:

"America turns its mass-produced urine antennae toward Caesar's arrogant ganglion, while history is advocated by utopians as a substitute for defecating."

This is not the sort of individual we want associated with what will be a premier American landmark.

Zimbabwe's banks were fast running out of money yesterday....Tellers have been told to hand out only the equivalent of £3.50 to each customer....[The inflation] rate is estimated to be more than 700 per cent, meaning that many more notes are required to buy the same quantity of goods. Most nations facing economic meltdown opt to print more notes, but the only press producing the highest denomination note, of Z$500 (35p), is already working 24 hours a day. Plans to produce larger notes have had to be abandoned until the country can find the foreign currency to import more ink....

A professional assistant at a clinic run by Harare municipality, who earns Z$70,000 a month, started weeping quietly. "We can't believe things will get worse. But each time they get worse. Will it ever end?"