Guts …
… President Bush sure doesn’t lack them. As if an impending war in Iraq were not enough, the Bush Administration is expected to announce today a detailed framework for Medicare reform. The latest version will be more generous than some earlier drafts: It will add drug coverage to existing Medicare (albeit with a large deductible) – and will offer seniors even more comprehensive drug coverage if they enter newer Medicare plans that cost the taxpayer less. Haggle over the details if you like – proposing this plan at this time is still an audacious act of governance.
Are the North Koreans Mad?
Or do they have a plan? Are they coordinating their timing with the Iraqis? It seems hard otherwise to understand why they seem sointent on forcing the U.S. into war. So long as Bush seems disinclined to fight them, the press wonders why he hesitates – but if it ever actually came to conflict, the same folks who now pooh-pooh Saddam will suddenly discover a new enthusiasm for North Korea.
It Begins – or Has it Begun?
The Daily Telegraph adds its weight to the papers reporting that hostilities have already commenced inside Iraq. Was the apprehension of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed – in other words, the decapitation of al Qaeda – maybe the GO signal for which the Bush Administration has been waiting?