And they held a fair, honest election that wasn't bought and paid for by the wealthy, where minor party candidates got equal media time in the first round, where the final two candidates went at it for three hours in debate, where the voters got the leisure of voting on the weekend, and where the whole election process lasted only a few months once the parties selected their leaders.

Oh, and no Electoral College to muck things up.

At some point -- and more than a decade would certainly qualify -- the act of continuously killing innocent people, countless children, in the Muslim world most certainly does reflect upon, and even alters, the moral character of a country, especially its leaders. You can't just spend year after year piling up the corpses of children and credibly insist that it has no bearing on who you are. That's particularly true when, as is the case in Afghanistan, the cause of the war is so vague as to be virtually unknowable. It's woefully inadequate to reflexively dismiss every one of these incidents as the regrettable but meaningless by-product of our national prerogative.

New York changes focus in tackling the sex trade -- pimps and johns get arrested, hookers get a pass.