Photo of the Day - Bamboo Raft on the Li River

Beautiful tall stands of bamboo grow along the Li River near Guilin, China, and local people craft rafts from the long poles. This man was poling his raft near our riverboat in hopes of selling his wares.

The Law of Unintended Consequences

It's an ultimate irony. George W. Bush insists "we" brought freedom to Iraq by deposing Sadam Hussein's government, but have we unleashed and given freedom to a spirit of hate and persecution? Tonight, 60 Minutes showed a report on the persecution and murder of Christians in Iraq. We've seen reports of terrible treatment of women, those women that Bush was so proud of having liberated, who are now worse off than under the dictator Sadam. We have liberated the sectarian violence. If freedom were only the freedom to live a good life and respect one's neighbor, it would be a desirable outcome, but if "freedom" means violence, hatred, death and destruction, anarchy and chaos, what have we wrought?

We keep hearing that the news out of Iraq is "better." Better because there is less killing, not because it has stopped, not because the Iraqi government has risen to the occasion to unify the country, not because the country is pulling together to find a common, peaceful future. Well, it's a start . . . but will it lead anywhere? Anywhere we can be proud of? It looks grim to me.