Of all papers, The New York Times is running an impeccably measured report on the Bush Administration's plans for democratizing Iraq. It's nothing one wouldn't expect from a White House girded with a new seriousness towards nation-building: gutting Saddam's Tikrit-born, Ba'athist infestation; protecting oil fields before converting them to divining rods for the Iraqi people's market benefit; balancing a military and civilian authority to allow for the smoothest transition from dictatorship to republic. Considering the nonsensical backwash still emanating from the appeasement aisles, it's comforting to watch Bush and his advisors trudging forward.

The implications of a successful conversion will be staggering - in the immediate sense, the Middle East's political landscape will erupt as if tectonic, and despots will fall. For humanity, those of us alive today are witness to a principled stand for human dignity and a declaration to the absolute value of free nations for the cause of peace among men.