The Bush doctrine takes a beating: After 50 former British diplomats criticized Tony Blair's Iraq policy, 53 former US diplomats are accusing the Bush administration of sacrificing the United States' credibility in the world by blatantly siding with Ariel Sharon.

Losing Will: In a column titled "Time for Bush to See the Realities of Iraq," conservative columnist George Will starts out by quoting Bush's Rose Garden speech on Friday:

"There's a lot of people in the world who don't believe that people whose skin color may not be the same as ours can be free and self-govern. I reject that. I reject that strongly. I believe that people who practice the Muslim faith can self-govern. I believe that people whose skins aren't necessarily -- are a different color than white can self-govern."

What does such careless talk say about the mind of this administration? Note that the clearly implied antecedent of the pronoun "ours" is "Americans." So the president seemed to be saying that white is, and brown is not, the color of Americans' skin. He does not mean that. But that is the sort of swamp one wanders into when trying to deflect doubts about policy by caricaturing and discrediting the doubters.

Will continues: "This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and, having thought, to have second thoughts... Being steadfast in defense of carefully considered convictions is a virtue. Being blankly incapable of distinguishing cherished hopes from disappointing facts, or of reassessing comforting doctrines in face of contrary evidence, is a crippling political vice." Ouch.

More bruises: Former ambassador Joseph Wilson, the last US diplomat to meet Saddam before his capture, is getting his licks in on his old boss and the GOP:

If you're fiscally responsible, this is not your party. If you believe in a moderate foreign policy characterized by alliances, free trade and the ability to operate in an international environment, this is not your party. If you believe in limited federal government, this is not your party. If you believe that the government should stay out of your bedroom, this is very definitely not your party. In fact, I would argue that unless you believe in the American imperium, imposed on the world by force, or unless you believe in the literal interpretation of the Book of Revelations, this is not your party.

If it’s our war, let’s all fight it. If not… Former Marine Corps lieutenant (and founding editor of Texas Monthly) William Broyles, Jr., writes the most sensible defense of the draft in today’s New York Times. Having been called up himself to fight in Vietnam, and with his son serving in Iraq, his perspective is credible:

If this war is truly worth fighting, then the burdens of doing so should fall on all Americans. If you support this war, but assume that Pat Tillman and Other People's Children should fight it, then you are worse than a hypocrite. If it's not worth your family fighting it, then it's not worth it, period. The draft is the truest test of public support for the administration's handling of the war, which is perhaps why the administration is so dead set against bringing it back.