The Unquiet Americans: The twin charm offensive of Bush and Powell seems to presage the find rundown to war, the pundit say. The Euroservative Economist gives crucial support to war in Iraq, but castigates Ashcroft for ignoring "the basic rules of due process" ... Eric Alterman misquotes Emerson, is unconvinced by Bush's rare press conference appearance, and gives his exegesis on a policy that "started with a war cry and had nothing to escalate to" ... Alterman's Newsweek colleague Howard Fineman suggests that Bush is getting taken by an international community of grifting governments ... Slate reviews Ken Pollack's stance on Iraq and Bush, and continues to push what seems to be the favorite defilade of cautious hawks: "[H]owever justified the coming war with Iraq may be, the Bush administration is in no shape ... to wage it or at least to settle its aftermath" ... The NYT gives a characteristically muddled ex cathedra pronouncement on the war, while Krugman compares Bush to Caligula and a James Bond villain ... Beinart at TNR fears that "hawks inside and outside the Bush administration are tiptoeing in the direction of a preemptive strike" on North Korea".

 
Crouch-ing Tiger, Hidden Hawk: Syndicated columnist, jazz theorist, and philosophical pugilist Stanley Crouch has returned to his old stomping grounds, Salon.com, for an interview on Iraq. Crouch -- an unconventional conservative whose political prescience often makes him Cassandra judging Paris -- has as complex and nuanced a take as ever on the Iraqi crisis.

 
All we are saying... They've got to be joking.