NO SMOKING GUN

Peter Jennings reported on ABC"World News Tonight" that Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged today that he has seen"no smoking gun or concrete evidence linking Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda. Last February, Mr. Powell told the United Nations that Iraq was harboring terrorists with ties to Osama Bin Laden and warned of a sinister nexus between Iraq and the terrorist network."

So, let's see: A 400-member military team of weapons inspectors has been withdrawn by the Bush administration because there are no discernible weapons of mass destruction. There is"no smoking gun" linking Iraq to Al Qaeda. But the world is safe for democracy now that Saddam Hussein has been deposed, even though Hussein was never an imminent threat to American security.

Of course,"we" actually have to build this"democracy" with a recipe that includes big helpings of crony capitalism and even bigger helpings of US taxpayer dollars.

Oh, uh, nine more troops were killed in another Black Hawk Down incident in Falluja, and a transport plane carrying 63 passengers was hit with a surface-to-air missile out of the Baghdad airport.

While Queen Elizabeth II christened the Queen Mary II today, Iraq is starting to feel more and more like the Titanic.