I opposed this war. But since we went in, I have felt that we needed to stay in until we had set Iraq on its feet. The one thing that has always given me pause, however, is the thought that we have botched the war so thoroughly that we are not capable of doing that: that our presence is counterproductive, but our absence would be worse. I have never figured out whether I think we are there yet. I suspect we are. For this reason, I honestly do not know what we should do.

I do know, however, that it is time for this administration to stop pretending that we are winning the war, or turning the corner, or that "the insurgency is in its last throes." (Editor and Publisher: "Is Dick Cheney the New 'Baghdad Bob'?") The American people are not stupid. They know that the insurgency is not in its last throes. They need leadership, not lies. I also think it is imperative that this administration set aside its usual modus operandi and actually consult with congressional leaders of both parties. They have had their chance to act as they see fit, and they have used it disastrously. It is time for them to stop. I agree with Zbigniew Brzezinski in yesterday's radio address (mp3, my transcript):

"Patriotism and love of country does not demand endless sacrifice on the part of our troops in a war justified by slogans. To ensure a safe and secure America, we have a responsibility to ask how we got to this point and where we are going from here. For the first time in our history, America is conducting a war without any effort whatsoever at bipartisan consultation on our tactics, on our strategy, and on our goals. The President can't change the circumstances in which we went to war. He can't make up for the mistakes that have been made. But surely he can move forward in a more responsible way.

The President should provide the American people with a plan describing the key elements of a successful strategy in Iraq. He should explain clearly and credibly what must be achieved before our troops can come home. And then he should lay out what he needs in order to achieve that goal. Our soldiers don't need fancy slogans to do their duty. But to accomplish their mission they need honesty and real leadership based on genuine national unity."

"What the evidence of recent history clearly shows is that left to its own devices, Iraq will completely ignore the clear commands of the UN, and the credibility of the UN as a forum for effective global co-operation and enforcement will seek ever-lower nadirs. But that's as far as I'll go. As for the rest of it, I can't swallow that much bile - the cynical, manipulative way that Bush & friends foisted this issue onto the nation, the reverses and inconsistencies in our statements to our allies and our enemies, the repellant demagoguery of the deaths of 3,000 people to justify his shitty little oil venture. Don't get me wrong, I think that Bush is an evil chimp, and any coincidence of his motives with a concern for global justice is but coincidence. But, whether he really cares about the UN or not, when he says that the UN becomes less relevant every day it lets Saddam spit in its face without doing anything, he's right.

Sunshine-Propelled Craft Is Set to Sail in Space

The idea occurred to German astronomer Johannes Kepler in the 17th century when he detected a comet flying across the night sky trailing what looked like a plume of fire. If space had so much wind, why not build ships to sail the heavens?

Indeed. Tomorrow, barring delay or mishap, a U.S. filmmaker, an international association of space buffs and Russian aerospace organizations will use a leftover Soviet ballistic missile to put the first "solar sail" into orbit.

This unusual device, which looks like a 6,500-square-foot flower with eight triangular, mirrorlike petals, does not use wind, as Kepler predicted. Instead, it hopes to show that sunlight's gentle push might one day enable a spacecraft to reach speeds far greater than anything achieved by a mere rocket. Deployed, the petals are about 1 1/2 times the size of a basketball court.

"The design life for this mission is only a month," said Louis Friedman, project director for the venture known as Cosmos 1. "It could go longer, but not much. What we want to do is prove that it works -- that we can increase orbit energy and make it fly higher."

Solar sails work on a relatively simple principle -- that beams of light bouncing off a reflective surface will transmit a push to the surface, driving it forward. Although the force is tiny, it is also constant and cumulative. And in the vacuum of space, there is no atmospheric friction to slow it down.

Speed rises, and eventually will build well beyond the 25,000 mph needed to free an object from Earth's gravity. If they handle it properly, ground-based engineers can steer a solar sail back and forth in space, Friedman said, "tacking it, like a sailboat -- although the physics are different."

"The basic trick is to get a large enough sail surface and a spacecraft that's light enough so you can move," said NASA In-Space Propulsion Technology Manager Les Johnson, who is overseeing two NASA solar-sail projects expected to be ready sometime after 2010. "In the 1970s, we didn't have either the materials or the structures, and we've only gotten them in the last five or 10 years."

When Marine recruiters go way beyond the call

For mom Marcia Cobb and her teenage son Axel, the white letters USMC on their caller ID soon spelled, "Don't answer the phone!" Marine recruiters began a relentless barrage of calls to Axel as soon as the mellow, compliant Sedro-Woolley High School grad had cut his 17th birthday cake. And soon it was nearly impossible to get the seekers of a few good men off the line.

"I've been trained to be pretty friendly. I guess you might even say I'm kind of passive," Axel told me last week, just after his mother and older sister had tracked him to a Seattle testing center and sprung him on a ruse.

A single mom with a meager income, Marcia raised her kids on the farm where, until recently, she grew salad greens for restaurants. Axel's father, a Marine Corps vet who served in Vietnam, died when Axel was 4. Clearly the recruiters knew all that and more.

"You don't want to be a burden to your mom," they told him. "Be a man." "Make your father proud." Never mind that, because of his own experience in the service, Marcia says enlistment for his son is the last thing Axel's dad would have wanted.

The next weekend, when Marcia went to Seattle for the Folklife Festival and Axel was home alone, two recruiters showed up at the door. Axel repeated the family mantra, but he was feeling frazzled and worn down by then. The sergeant was friendly but, at the same time, aggressively insistent. This time, when Axel said, "Not interested," the sarge turned surly, snapping, "You're making a big (bleeping) mistake!"

Next thing Axel knew, the same sergeant and another recruiter showed up at the LaConner Brewing Co., the restaurant where Axel works. And before Axel, an older cousin and other co-workers knew or understood what was happening, Axel was whisked away in a car.

"They said we were going somewhere but I didn't know we were going all the way to Seattle," Axel said.

Just a few tests. And so many free opportunities, the recruiters told him.

He could pursue his love of chemistry. He could serve anywhere he chose and leave any time he wanted on an "apathy discharge" if he didn't like it. And he wouldn't have to go to Iraq if he didn't want to.

At about 3:30 in the morning, Alex was awakened in the motel and fed a little something. Twelve hours later, without further sleep or food, he had taken a battery of tests and signed a lot of papers he hadn't gotten a chance to read. "Just formalities," he was told. "Sign here. And here. Nothing to worry about."

By then Marcia had "freaked out."

She went to the Burlington recruiting center where the door was open but no one was home. So she grabbed all the cards and numbers she could find, including the address of the Seattle-area testing center.

Then, with her grown daughter in tow, she high-tailed it south, frantically phoning Axel whose cell phone had been confiscated "so he wouldn't be distracted during tests."

Axel's grandfather was in the hospital dying, she told the people at the desk. He needed to come home right away. She would have said just about anything.

But, even after being told her son would be brought right out, her daughter spied him being taken down a separate hall and into another room. So she dashed down the hall and grabbed him by the arm.

"They were telling me I needed to 'be a man' and stand up to my family," Axel said.

What he needed, it turned out, was a lawyer.

Five minutes and $250 after an attorney called the recruiters, Axel's signed papers and his cell phone were in the mail.