To the Point

In Iraq, Should US Stay the Course or Find a New One?

Last week, Vice President Cheney said the Iraq insurgency was in its "last throes." Then America's top Iraqi commander told the Senate it's as strong as it was six months ago, with an increase in foreign fighters coming to join it. Yesterday, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld told Fox News it could last for a dozen years. Meantime, public support for the conflict is fading fast and, in prime time tomorrow, President Bush will weigh in with a speech designed to restore it. Is it time to re-examine America's goals and strategies? How have the so-called "Downing Street memos" contributed to the decline in public support? We hear from experts on defense, national security and political science, and the reporter who scooped the leaked Downing Street memos. Making News: Supreme Court Goes on Break with a Flurry of Decisions On the last day of this year's session, the US Supreme Court was divided today on displays of the Ten Commandments in courthouses and other public lands. Dahlia Lithwick, who covers the court for the online magazine Slate.com, says the seemingly contradictory opinions in the Texas and Kentucky cases turned on the issue of intent. Reporter's Notebook: Italian Judge Orders Arrest of 13 CIA Agents in Milan Kidnapping Two years ago in Milan, the radical Egyptian cleric Abu Omar was kidnapped on his way to mosque. His family claims he was taken to Egypt, where he was tortured. Now, an Italian judge has ordered the arrest of 13 CIA agents involved. International law expert Mary Ellen O'Connell says the case demonstrates that other countries will no longer be a passive party to the US policy of "extraordinary rendition" in its war against terror.