President Lincoln did whatever was necessary, in a time of our greatest national emergency, to fulfill his oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and DOMESTIC...even to the point of suspending individual rights recognized by it (e.g habeas corpus, draft, income taxes, etc.). Had he given in to political pressure (from Democrats) to sue for peace, the United States would not have become the great nation it became...and quite possibly the world, itself would be much different (how would you feel about Singapore under Imperial Japanese rule in the 21st Century?) At a time now where we are faced with an evil that would place the entire planet under the facist rule of islam... a clearly stated goal of modern islamists (trust me, you do not want to live under shirea law)... it is high time that President Bush & Tony Blair copy a page or two from Lincoln's playbook in order to save the USA (and the REST OF THE WORLD) from this threat. "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it". --George Santayana "If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union [on] this voyage nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume IV, "Speech at Cleveland, Ohio" (February 15, 1861), p. 216. It's about time to start throwing some folks overboard if we want to save the ship.