With Ears and Eyes Closed
It was a weekend of going through the motions. Lip service was still being given to the idea that the war could be stopped. "It's Not Too Late," read one of the signs displayed on Saturday as tens of thousands of antiwar protesters marched from the Washington Monument to the White House.

Dick Cheney was on television yesterday morning advancing the fiction that "we're still in the final stages of diplomacy." President Bush was meeting in the Azores with his coalition of the hard-of-hearing, the small but stubborn group of men committed to attacking Iraq no matter how wrong or undesirable that might be, or how much outrage it provokes around the world.

We're about to watch the tragedy unfold. The president, who's wanted war with Iraq all along, has been unwilling to listen seriously to anyone with an opposing view. He's turned his back on those worried about the consequences of a split in the trans-Atlantic alliance that has served the world well for better than half a century. He's closed his mind to those who have argued that pre-emptive warfare will ultimately make the world more — not less — unstable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/17/opinion/17HERB.html