[Sabertooth]

A major underlying reason for the gap between the President and part of the public is not that he withheld secret information about Iraq. It has been that the administration did not focus enough on the hideous nonsecret actions of Saddam Hussein's fascist regime - the steady, daily torture and execution of both Iraqis and prisoners from other nations.

< -snip- >

Something is seriously missing in the Bush administration's efforts to deal with the reality of Iraqi torture. It is that the President and his top officials are not heard frequently enough talking about the screams of the countless Iraqis who were caught up in Saddam's machinery of torture.

If the President and his top aides do not find the time to become witnesses against that torture by detailing its horrors time and again, they will deprive the country of an essential moral and political dimension in the war to stamp out the remnants of Saddam's fascism.

Absolutely correct. The sadism of Saddam's tyranny ought to be thrown in the face of those forever chattering "where are the WMDs already?"

[Southack]

President Bush has mentioned the torture on several occassions.

Moreover, I see relatively little value in further pandering to the ridiculous "where are the WMD's" crowd simply because they are professional, permanent malcontents. They will either deny evidence of WMD's if given to them, or else they will effortlessly segue to yet another entirely different criticism.

Their goal is to bring down Bush, after all, and their method is perpetual criticism of *everything*.

What we must do is to stay on target, on message, and continue being the adults at the world playground of children states.