I was horrified to speak to relatives in the Middle East yesterday and hear that American missiles had destroyed hundreds of more human beings (a figure which the U.S. press so inaccurately reports). The large sums of money going up in smoke and coming down as rubble as American missiles demolish Iraqi infrastructure seem like something of a waste, an immoderate effort by President Bush at demonstrating to the world who, really, is boss.

Does this war denote that America has adopted a new foreign policy strategy, one in which unilateral action is the standard and military action is just another diplomatic tool? Since Bush took office we have been increasingly willing to defy international consensus and do as we please. The U.S. abandoned the plan for an International Criminal Court, deserted the global warming agreement, withdrew from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, and sabotaged other efforts to address international problems.

With so many civilian deaths we must ask: Aren't human beings supposed to be sacred somehow, less dispensable than the contents of buildings? Aren't we supposed to distinguish between the metal of a car or the bricks of a building and the flesh and blood and potential futures they contained? That humanitarian, enlightenment philosophy apparently hasn't yet shone upon Bush. Nor has it brightened the dim bulb of the members of his administration, who are content to fiddle and watch while people's homes, hearts, and murdered bodies are blazing in Baghdad.