See ya for a while

I'm going on a brief trip, not taking my Internet connection, and so will not be blogging for a while. (I know, I know, you're heartbroken.)
As a parting shot, I must observe this: The happy-happy reports that the US-sponsored resolution about Iraq was "unanimously passed" by the Security Council today are amazingly distorted. What really happened was that Colin Powell finally wore down the opposition by a water-torture of tiny alterations in the language until finally the opponents to the marginally-amended resolution gave approval. It wasn't a victory for the US, in the sense that we gained acceptance of our conduct, just that we conquered the opposition by diplomatic pestering.
The most telling part of the story is carried in the last paragraph of the WAPO article (WAPO will, I trust, in later editions explain this more fully), namely that none of the big countries, France, Germany, Russia, China, are going to contribute one whit--not a body, not a Euro, nothing--to help the US out of the quagmire Bush has created.

When I return to cyberspace I'll see if America has been told how Phyrric this victory is. Meanwhile, when a soldier is killed, it's still 10 to 1 it's an American, and when a dollar is spent, it's yours and mine.