Mark, I quoted Emma Lazarus in support of your point that a certain “universalism” attaches to American ideas about immigration — a point that Derb said was news to him. Yes, the poem on the base of the Statue of Liberty is a creation of the 19th Century, but so what? “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” has nothing to say specifically about the war in Iraq, but you can certainly learn something about American ideas relating to war from it.