■ France is willing to fight, thank goodness—but only within the U.N. Security Council.
■ Donald Rumsfeld suggested that war with Iraq could be avoided if “the senior leadership in that country” were to find a “haven in some other country.” He raised the possibility that Saddam Hussein might escape a war-crimes trial if he relinquished power. Rumsfeld isn’t freelancing: Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice said similar things the same weekend. We (along with the Iraqis) may therefore be reasonably sure that Rumsfeld’s implicit offer is an American policy. That policy recognizes that America has no interest in seeing Saddam brought to trial, or killed, at the cost of a war. But the necessary caveat is that the “senior leadership” must be defined with a wide net. The Ba’athist regime must be dismantled, not recapitated. Because our quarrel is not with Saddam Hussein personally, we need not “get” him. But for the same reason, we cannot safely stop at his removal from power.
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