Saddam Hussein has received a death sentence for crimes he committed more than a year before Donald Rumsfeld shook his hand in Baghdad. Let’s reach back into history and extract these facts:

* On Dec. 20, 1983, the Washington Post reported that Rumsfeld “visited Iraq in what U.S. officials said was an attempt to bolster the already improving U.S. relations with that country.”

* Two days later, the New York Times cited a “senior American official” who “said that the United States remained ready to establish full diplomatic relations with Iraq and that it was up to the Iraqis.”

* On March 29, 1984, the Times reported: “American diplomats pronounce themselves satisfied with relations between Iraq and the United States and suggest that normal diplomatic ties have been restored in all but name.” Washington had some goodies for Saddam’s regime, the Times account noted, including “agricultural-commodity credits totaling $840 million.” And while “no results of the talks have been announced” after the Rumsfeld visit to Baghdad three months earlier, “Western European diplomats assume that the

Is there meth in Ted Haggard's heaven? Does it rot your teeth? In his 2005 Barbara Walters interview, Haggard says you can eat all the food you want in heaven and never gain weight. Can you shoot all the meth you want and never lose your teeth or grow emaciated? What about unprotected sex with gay prostitutes? Do you get divine protection against AIDS? Or only if you give regular spiritual advice to the President, and help the Republicans blame gays for America's family problems

Now that Haggard has been outed by a gay prostitute for having sex with him and buying meth, and has resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals,

I wonder what it will take for the good people in the pews to call leaders like Haggard, Jerry Fallwell, and James Dobson to account for their mean-spirited hypocrisy. And maybe even to approach the world with more forgiveness and less vindictiveness. I hope they won't just move on to other seductive leaders who similar project their fears and flaws on whoever they chooses to demonize.

It's might be too much to hope, but maybe this is an opportunity for the

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Six weeks after a bloodless military coup destroyed Thailand's democracy, squabbling has erupted among supporters of the putsch, amid worries that corrupt politicians are hiding illegal loot while the ruling junta dithers without direction.

"It could all turn into a political farce," warned Campaign for Popular Democracy member Suwit Watnoo, after rifts among the coup's collaborators spilled into the public arena.

"So far, corruption allegations are just that -- unfounded allegations. This makes society uneasy," complained Ongart Klampaiboon, spokesman for the Democrat Party, which benefited from sudden toppling of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government on Sept. 19.

The popular coup also did not stop Islamist separatists fighting in southern Thailand, where more than 1,700 people have died since January 2004, despite the junta's promise to listen to minority ethnic Malay Muslims' demands for justice, equality, autonomy and multiculturalism.

Pojaman Shinawatra, Mr. Thaksin's wealthy wife, successfully scandalized one of the junta's top officials by privately meeting him while her

"You, sir, should be horsewhipped."

Nothing like a little intimidation to liven up my ongoing meditation on a just society. To be threatened with e-mail violence by a Marine Corps major (ret.) steeped in righteousness - wow, how deliciously personal and unfair. What a lovely mixture of bile and adrenaline it sets to bubbling. What a temptation it creates to respond in kind.

Instead, I've decided to make this conversation - about violence, ignorance, idealism - public. This is bigger than both of us, sir.

I stand accused, for writing a column defending a young Marine deserter who fled apparent criminal abuse at the hands of fellow Marines (returning Iraq vets who acted as though they were haunted by the demons of PTSD), of "disrupting the good order and discipline" of the Corps, and of an almost treasonous failure, judging by the tone of the letter and the proposed punishment, to appreciate how good I've got it: "It is the likes of men . . . you belittle and criticize that provide you with the privilege of the free speech you so eagerly abuse."