From a BBC story: Dubya claims the signs are not encouraging with respect to Iraq's compliance with weapons inspections. The inspection teams have found no evidence of weapons of mass distruction. The signs are not encouraging for a war?

Anyway, apparently Iraqis have opened fire on a Kuwaiti coastguard patrol boat. I'm not sure what to think, though for some reason I'm reminded of the start of the Vietnam conflict. Does Iraq (or rather, some subset of the same) want a war? The US certainly does.

Interesting travel piece in the Guardian. Johann Hari goes on a package tour to Iraq.

CNN reports that the US supreme court is considering the legality of state sodomy laws in a test case. In 13 states homosexual intercourse is illegal. And in 1986 the supreme court ruled that consenting adults have no constitutional right to private homosexual sex. Makes the debates over the age of (homosexual) consent (and clause 18) seem positively enlightened, and the UK seem a bastion of human rights.

I'm looking at various news sites now. I find ABC news to be interesting, discussing the issues of Iraqi regime change here, among other things. They note, for example: Democratically elected governments were crushed and replaced by despots and killers — albeit pro-American, anti-communist despots and killers.

Reports of human rights abuses in Iraq are out again. A piece in the National Post, via the Guardian weblog. Amnesty International criticises the selective attention to human rights, and basically points out the war-mongering. Perhaps I would feel better about a war on Iraq if I felt that the process did not begin with a decision to have a war, and end with noticing the actions of Iraq (whether on human rights or weapons of mass destruction).