Bush's Plan B

For years, the Administration ducked and weaved to avoid allowing the morning-after pill called Plan B to become available to Americans facing the consequences of imprudence, mishaps or poor judgment.

Now President Bush, faced with his own need for a Plan B in Iraq, is unwilling to abort his misbegotten war.

The crux of the analogy is that the man who self-righteously wants individuals to take responsibility for their mistakes keeps denying his own and letting innocent young people pay for them with their lives.

Tonight he will again insult our intelligence by claiming success in Iraq and then take credit for bringing home the additional troops he put there this year who were scheduled to leave in any case.

When Vietnam was failing, a shrewd old Republican Senator from Vermont, George Aiken, said, “There's only one way out of there, that's to declare victory and just leave."

For the Iraq disaster, Bush’s answer is to declare victory and stay.

Two Cheers for the Plan B Lifestyle

The surging sales of the morning-after pill evoke mixed feelings. While the new contraceptive certainly gives women (and men) more freedom of choice, its popularity raises qualms about how far we’ve gone toward becoming a Plan B society.

Marry the wrong person? No-fault divorce. Stuff your face for years? Try diet pills and, if they don’t work, surgery. Run up too many bills? Go bankrupt.

In a society that believes in second chances, it’s hard to argue against the right to correct mistakes, but whatever happened to pay as you go, look before you leap or plain old think twice?

More to the point, there is still no totally free lunch. Uproot your children’s lives, tamper with your body chemistry, lose your credit rating, the “delete” button won’t solve everything.

At the risk of sounding like an old scold, one thing more: Get into the wrong war and try to find a Plan B pill for that.

Maybe we should be taking a longer, harder look at the Plan A’s in our lives.