Getting a grip

Conservative American commentator Andrew Sullivan thinks the US should "fight this war the way Americans have always fought: humanely but relentlessly, for a better, freer world."

Sullivan's delusion rests on one false presumption: the Bush administration has sullied the good name of the US - with torture, rendition and the like - and if only we could get back to "the good old days."

The "good old days" were, in fact, just as filled with illegal behaviour, torture, rendition and military interventions. The only difference now, however, is that the media has started discussing the excesses of the current US administration.

Sullivan, like many liberals and conservatives alike, need to refresh their history and understand that the US has been consistent, if not secretive.