The Road Home  —  It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit.  —  Like many Americans, we have put off that conclusion, waiting for a sign that President Bush was seriously trying to dig the United States …

'I tried to avoid this war.'  —  Former Secretary of State Colin Powell revealed that he spent 2.5 hours "vainly trying to persuade President George W. Bush not to invade Iraq and believes today's conflict cannot be resolved by U.S. forces.  'I tried to avoid this war,' Powell said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado.

Things I Don't Understand  —  What possible authority does the White House have to try to prevent a former employee from testifying about something?  How can the White House "not let her" testify?  —  Obviously if she doesn't want to testify they can play legal games to try to prevent …

Live Earth fails to pack large-scale punch  —  It did what it said on the poster - but no more.  The British leg of Live Earth started at 1.30 pm sharp with a thunderous five-minute drum fanfare by a 20-odd troupe of flailing percussionists, battering a miscellany of ethnic skinned instruments.

Smelly Journalism Dept: Fred Thompson's Wife  —  To those of you who roll your eyes and groan when you hear people go on and on about the biased news media that injects its personal opinions into news stories and peppers them with assumptions that the writer more than "critics say" seems to hold, roll your eyes no longer.

Pakistan arrests 'Taleban aides'  —  Several key aides to the leader of Afghanistan's Taleban rebels, Mullah Omar, are reported to have been arrested in Pakistan.  —  An Afghan intelligence source told the BBC four senior associates of Mullah Omar were being held after operations by Pakistani security forces.

Car bombs are linked with Iraq's Al-Qaeda  —  AT least one of the suspects being quizzed over the alleged plot to set off car bombs in Britain was in recent contact with Al-Qaeda in Iraq, senior security officials said yesterday.  —  Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command SO15 is understood …

Not in their name?  —  Muslims were as much outraged by last weekend's failed car bomb attacks as the rest of the country.  Does that mean they will now help the authorities to root out Islamist terrorists?  Alasdair Palmer investigates  —  The statement from Muhammed Abdul Bari …

Sen. Schumer says they are thinking of calling Patrick Fitzgerald in for questioning  —  While talking about the Scooter Libby commutation on Face the Nation, Sen. Schumer said he talked to Pat Leahy about calling Patrick Fitzgerald in for questioning about Bush and Cheney because they didn't talk …

Nuclear Profileration as a campaign issue  —  Reports over the weekend that the Bush Administration has given a green light for the government of Kazakhstan to buy 10 percent of Westinghouse, in return for the transfer of uranium-processing technology to the state-run uranium firm KazAtomProm …

Administration Shaving Yardstick for Iraq Gains  —  Goals Unmet; Smaller Strides to Be Promoted  —  The Iraqi government is unlikely to meet any of the political and security goals or timelines President Bush set for it in January when he announced a major shift in U.S. policy …

Declaration of Dependence  —  Some mornings during the autumn of 1933, when the unemployment rate was 22 percent, the president, before getting into his wheelchair, sat in bed, surrounded by economic advisers, setting the price of gold.  One morning he said he might raise it 21 cents …