I've put up with some gruff for supporting us taking the fight to the Middle East. All of a sudden it is getting fashionable to agree with the "stragedy."

It hit me today that the difference between Lebanon and Prague - the parallels between today and 1989 in Berlin - are starkly contrasted by one fact. There are 115,000 US service men and women in driving distance to the protests. In the past we couldn't seriously threaten the USSR. Today we can threaten all of these regimes opressive Middle East regimes in real and concrete ways.

I said it here first in September 2002.

It isn't over, but the progress we've already seen is far beyond what most could even hope for.