Mob Rule

From applying scientific humbuggery to the Kyoto accords to unilateral insolence on the ABM treaty to strong-arm indifference on fiscal policy, Bush II has demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt to American citizens and the world alike its penchant for a Mafia mentality, absent any pretensions of honor. The administration is stuck in the century-old Black Hand decadence of the T.R.-Taft-Wilson era, which historian Robert Wiebe characterized as profit- and power-oriented, and specifically in the realm of foreign policy, immature and "intuitive." Today's executive wiseguys flex all the muscle of a political John Gotti, but none of the brain power of a Meyer Lansky. It's top-down arrogance to die for.

The Wrong War

Wahab Akbar is a congenial man in blue jeans and flip-flops who, by all accounts except his own, helped found the Abu Sayyaf "terrorist" group that we're now trying to exterminate. So you might expect to find Mr. Akbar cowering in the jungle. Nope. Instead Mr. Akbar is sipping a cold Coke in the nicest building here on Basilan, the island where Part 2 in America's war on terror is unfolding. He's the governor of Basilan and is helping to preside over the campaign against Abu Sayyaf.