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Some readers resented The Washington Post for publishing an Associated Press photograph of a critically wounded Iraqi child being lifted from the rubble of his home in Baghdad’s Sadr City “after a U.S. airstrike.” Two-year-old Ali Hussein later died in a hospital. As the saying goes, the picture was worth a thousand words because it showed the true horrors of this war. Neither side is immune from the killing of Iraqi civilians. But Americans should be aware of their own responsibility for inflicting death and pain on the innocent. The Post’s ombudsman, Deborah Howell, said about 20 readers complained about...

The American people have heard President George W. Bush and his spokespersons say many times that the U.S. government does not engage in torture. Whether Bush was believed or not is another story -- especially in light of the photographic evidence of the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib, the prison near Baghdad. It’s understood that many of the photos are too sadistically graphic to be made public. Still, the official U.S. denials of torture continued until earlier this month when Bush acknowledged in an interview with ABC-TV that he knew about and approved “enhanced interrogation” of detainees, including “waterboarding”...

If history repeats, the loser of this year’s presidential election will blame the news media. Richard Nixon, in the wake of his loss in the 1962 California gubernatorial race, bitterly taunted reporters, telling them, “You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.” (Turned out he was wrong on that point.) Barbara Bush also had some choice words about the press when her husband, President George H.W. Bush, lost his reelection bid in 1992. The media could be even a larger target this year because of the influence of blogs and talking heads...

Sad to say, with the popularity and availability of e-mail, personal letters may soon be a thing of the past. Historians, too, will lose out. Communications may soon be reduced to instant messages and sound bytes on the air. That’s why we should savor the National Geographic’s new collection of letters to first ladies titled “Dear First Lady” that give us some insights into their personal sorrows and joys. The authors -- Dwight Young and Margaret Johnson -- selected some poignant missives, love notes between presidents and their wives and letters that marked great moments in history, such as President...

Surprise, surprise. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, wants to put a halt to any more troop withdrawals for the foreseeable future. The highly politicized Petraeus seemed to be dutifully following his White House marching orders when he testified before congressional committees earlier this week. Under his scenario, there will be no drawdown of U.S. forces in that strife-ridden country until President Bush leaves office. That’s fine with Bush, who obviously has no intention of ending this futile war on his watch. Apparently feeling no responsibility for starting the war, Bush is planning to pass the Iraqi...

Hillary Clinton should hang in there and run a good race. And she has vowed to do so. Clinton has been under unprecedented pressure to bow out of the divisive Democratic primary and to clear the field for her opponent -- Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Among those who want her to throw in the towel are, of course, Obama’s supporters. But many other Democrats are trying to push her out of the contest on the ground that a contentious race can hurt the party and could help their Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Clinton also has been...

Back in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s worst days when he was grappling with the Vietnam quagmire and raucous anti-war protests at home, he said that in the big decisions about war and peace, “The people should be in on the takeoffs as well as the landings.” Tell that to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, who apparently could care less what Americans think -- except every four years at election time. Cheney made that clear in an intriguing interview with ABC News on his recent Middle East trip. Despite the difficulties surrounding the unprovoked U.S. invasion of...

A salute is due Adm. William Fallon, who tried to prevent a wider war with Iran. After serving one year as commander of U.S. Central Command, Fallon has resigned, saying he was quitting because his differences with official U.S. policy had become a “distraction.” But there is a widespread perception that he was pushed out by the neo-conservatives among President George W. Bush’s aides, especially Vice President Dick Cheney, because of Fallon’s reluctance to go along with the administration’s hawkish moves toward Iran. Cheney, who took five consecutive draft deferments to stay out of the Vietnam war, does not mind...

Let us hope that the next president of the United States knows some history. And let us hope that the next president will know that the United States cannot call all the shots, or pick and choose which leader-dictator we will talk to or decide which countries can have unconventional weapons. In other words, the U.S. should not rely totally on the arrogance of its formidable power in its foreign relations. That is why the performance of the New York Philharmonic in the Stalinist-style closed society of North Korea is a remarkable breakthrough. Music is the universal language. In the...

The successor to President George W. Bush has a clear-cut choice of saving lives or saving face. Bush wants to leave to the next president the burden of ending the debacle he started five years ago when he ordered the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, against a people who had done us no harm. Bush cannot explain his reasons for the war without compounding his folly. To this moment, Bush has not given a logical explanation for his disastrous militarism. How can he tell American families that their sons and daughters died for a terrible, tragic mistake committed by...

How strange is this? The nation’s chief law enforcement officer cannot say whether “waterboarding” is illegal. At a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Attorney General Michael Mukasey acknowledged under questioning that he would feel tortured if he were waterboarded, but he staunchly refused to say whether it was illegal. A heinous technique dating back to the Spanish Inquisition, waterboarding involves strapping a prisoner down and pouring water over his cloth-covered face to create a sensation of imminent drowning. Mukasey -- whose confirmation for the Cabinet post was championed by two Democrats, Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein...

Helen Thomas chatted with young [National Press] Club members over breakfast March 13 and with characteristic bluntness dismissed President George W. Bush as a chief executive who has made little contribution. The legendary White House correspondent, who has covered every president since John Kennedy, was acerbically critical of the Democratic Congressional leadership as well. Even at this stage in her long career, Thomas, now a syndicated columnist for Hearst, pointed out that she still depends for information on other journalists. “I’m reading newspapers every day like you are. And as eager as she was to take questions, Thomas was just...

If there is one federal agency that should always be squeaky clean, it is the Justice Department. But under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales -- the nation's chief law enforcement officer -- an embarrassing stench has arisen in the department because of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. Some irate Democratic lawmakers -- especially Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. -- are calling for his resignation for what smacks of politicization of the Justice Department. Gonzales took responsibility for mistakes that were made but insisted that he would not resign. He told a news conference Tuesday that the firings were the right decision....

TO: White House Correspondents' Association RE: White House Briefing Room DATE: March 16, 2007 The White House Correspondents' Association met today to review plans for the renovated West Wing Briefing Room and the seating assignments. The new briefing room will consist of 49 seats: 7 rows and 7 seats per row. In the old briefing room, we had 8 rows and 6 seats per row. This new configuration required us to make several adjustments to the seating arrangement, which is a White House Correspondents' Association responsibility. As a board, we decided to move CNN to the first row. This decision...

Fearless White House correspondent Helen Thomas has covered nine presidents, and says Bush is undoubtedly the worst. It was the talk of the blogosphere: As part of Stephen Colbert's eviscerating roast of President Bush at the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in April -- wonkish Washington's equivalent of the Oscars -- he showed a hilarious video that was supposedly an "audition" for the job of White House press secretary. His costar in the satiric short: none other than the octogenarian doyenne of White House correspondents, Helen Thomas. Using actual TV footage of the White House press corps, Colbert (of...

Say it isn't so. Hawkish Henry Kissinger is advising President George W. Bush about Iraq war strategy? This is deja vu all over again. The former secretary of state -- who served in that job from 1973 to 1979 and previously from 1969 as national security affairs adviser -- inspires too many bad memories of the Vietnam War. I remember when Kissinger came into the White House press room in 1972, just before the presidential election and announced "peace is at hand." Three years later, we fled Saigon by our fingertips. Who can forget the pictures of refugees piling into...

And you thought it was too much to hope for, but you were wrong! That's right, tonight and tonight only, you can spend time in the company of the sassy and inimitable doyenne of the White House press corps. Here are the details: Presidential Politics: Pundits, Personalities, and the People Monday September 25 at 7:00 pm A Free Panel Discussion offered in conjunction with our fall production STATE OF THE UNION moderated by Bob Schieffer, Host, CBS, Face the Nation with Helen Thomas, White House Correspondent, Hearst Newspaper and other panelists to be announced Ford’s Theatre 511 Tenth Street, NW...

NEW YORK -- Like so many women, Suzanne Holstein, a schoolteacher and mother of two, has had her struggles balancing motherhood and career. So she was sympathetic when she heard that ABC anchor Elizabeth Vargas, a woman she admires, was stepping down from her prestigious evening-news perch to focus on her growing family. And yet, like many women across the country, Holstein is not only a little disappointed by Vargas' move, but a little suspicious. "I can't believe that a woman who's worked so hard to get where she is would just resign like that," says Holstein, 39. "I think...

OK Gang! I just saw Rudy Bakhtiar reporting on FoxNews.Anyone know when she made the jump from the ClintonNewsNetwork and why?FoxNewsBabe dominance over CNN continues....Oh, and see the obligatory FR rules photo below...

For all those people who drool over the babes at Fox, check out the number one reason young (and old) Frenchmen (and perhaps French lesbians) are well informed.