A potpourri of opinion mongers By The Boston Globe President Bush had drawn another line in the sand that was clear to all the waiting world. This time the message to Saddam Hussein was: Pull out of Kuwait on the terms set by the United States and its allies or face their might on the field of battle. When Saddam failed to comply, this high-noon confrontation turned into the ground war that had been so long a-building. The president's action was firm, decisive and thoroughly appropriate to the circumstances. The San Francisco Chronicle We opposed this war at the outset, and we have dreaded the escalation from air war to ground war, which is sure to bring far more U.S. casualties. Like all Americans, we understand that there are times when armies must fight, even in the most hellish sort of combat. Through Saturday, we hoped this would not be such a time. We yearned for some 11th hour diplomatic miracle. But diplomats cannot deter heads of state bent on destruction, even their own destruction. Bush's high noon deadline was tight and terse, but not unreasonable. We felt Bush moved too quickly toward this war. But now it is Saddam who has made a ground war inevitable.The San Jose Mercury News Rationality is not in Mr. Hussein's inventory of what, to him, passes for reasoning. Whether or not his evil is Hitlerian in dimension is conjectural. Surely, though, Saddam Hussein has committed in a smaller space, in a shorter time, and with unprecedented atrocity, offenses against both humanity and Nature that Hitler would have applauded. Faced with such evil, those who value liberty, and life, and humanity -- and, yes, that elusive world condition called peace -- can make but one response when all else has failed. All else has been tried, in every single forum available to it. Despite that Herculean effort, all else failed. Hence "the mother of all battles." Hence the imperative to win it. The Miami Herald
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