Venezuela "has enough allies on this continent to start a 100-year war," Chavez said during his weekly television show.

It's hard to say how many of the thousands of same-sex couples who have married since Feb. 12 have children. But about 30 percent of households with gay couples in California and nationally do, compared with about 50 percent of married heterosexual households, according to 2000 U.S. Census estimates. In California, about 60,000 children live with same-sex couples.

Two key lessons emerge from this, which go beyond Haiti. The first is that military force is not just the most important element in US foreign policy, it is the beginning and the end of that policy. For the past 10 years, since the US restored Aristide to power, it could have trained the Haitian police and judiciary, invested in projects that shore up civil society and help create a democratic culture, increased aid and encouraged fair trade - all of which would have given Haiti a fighting chance of building a sustainable democracy. Instead, it imposed conditions by the IMF and the World Bank, followed it up with an embargo on the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and when none of that worked, sent in the marines against a nation with no army.
"We can't be called upon, expected or required to intervene every time there is violence against a failed leader," said the State Department spokesperson, Richard Boucher, last week. "We can't spend our time running around the world and the hemisphere saving people who botched their chance at leadership."

In the light of the bugging revelations, Blix is clearly smarting. "Although it's nice they were listening to us, why weren't they paying attention to what we said?