Last night I didn't get a chance to watch the SotU because I had a meeting; therefore I went to cnn.com and read the transcript. It was better than I'd feared; Bush didn't give us a groaner like "axis of evil" (when I first heard that, listening to last year's SotU on the radio, I was thinking What the f*ck is wrong with you?). We got to learn more evidence about the alleged need to attack Iraq; in fact, last night I was filled with dread with the prospect of another Vietnam.

So I'm actually rather cheered by cnn.com's headline that the U.S. may give Saddam and his chief lieutenants (including, hopefully, his wacko sons) a "refuge" from U.S. pursuit. Of course, that doesn't prevent, say, France* from bringing Saddam to trial in the Hague, does it?

*It's odd, I haven't heard this explanation for France's antipathy towards a U.S.-led war in Iraq: the French are currently fighting a war in Ivory Coast. They're busy! They don't have time to spend on a threat that a) is probably containable and b) is not immediate. By the way, what happened with Osama? Just wondering.