Oliver Willis calls on both anti-war and pro-war Americans to hold the administration to its commitment to create a free and democratic Iraq. I wholeheartedly agree.

Later, Stephen Green lays out what the Iraq War means for the region. No blockquotes; Read The Whole Thing™.

(Think of these two posts as two sides of the same coin—for what Stephen suggests to suceed, we must make the commitment that Oliver correctly implores us to.)

Josh Chafetz of OxBlog reports on a violent incident where apparently several thugs armed with a 2×4 broke into the dorm suite of an anti-war female student at Yale University, apparently in an unsuccessful effort to attack her and remove an upside-down American flag she had placed in her window. Simply despicable.

Speaking of despicable, the examples of subhuman garbage that are making bogus “your kid is dead” phone calls deserve to be dropped from B2s onto one of Saddam’s presidential palaces. Or, since they apparently don't approve of cultural imperialism, we should just send them to Basra with “human shield” tattooed on their foreheads in English and Arabic and watch how long they last. And throw in the aforementioned thuggish sleazebags from Yale too. (Via Ken Layne.)

Mark Kleiman, rightly taking to task an effort to strengthen the already-draconian federal sentencing “guidelines,” asks:

Note to my libertarian friends: WHEN ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO WISE UP AND STOP VOTING REPUBLICAN?

Ironically, he gives the answer earlier in his own post:

This is truly horrible public policy, but if it can’t be killed quietly in conference I’m not sure I’d want the Democrats to self-immolate over it.

If the Democrats aren’t willing to have the testicular fortitude to stand up for their alleged social liberalism, why should anyone who cares about social liberalism vote for them? We had eight years of Bill Clinton, during which I dare say he advanced the frontiers of personal liberty exactly none; he went along with the War on Drugs, he frequently jumped at the opportunity to portray himself as “tough on crime,” and he acquiesced in the continuing “federalize everything” drive that the alleged states-rights Republicans and freedom-loving Democrats in Congress led. The most generous thing anyone can say about personal freedom during the Clinton administration under Janet Reno is that at least it wasn’t as bad as John Ashcroft, and it’d be a stretch even to say that with a straight face.

In short, Mark thinks Democrats need to choose their battles—but I’m not sure they’ve chosen one yet.

This month’s How Appealing “20 Questions” interview is with Mississippi Supreme Court justice Kay Cobb of Oxford. It’s a fascinating interview, and Howard Bashman, as always, asks some pretty insightful questions.