Americans make untimely visits to Iraq

Grating on the minds and sticking in the craws of many Americans -- us included -- are the visits of American officeholders and citizens to Iraq at this crucial moment in history.

For months, President Bush has been preparing to strike the outlaw regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The president and his entire foreign-policy and defense team are working overtime, and with much success, to navigate the perilous shoals of international diplomacy in wartime and to build as large a coalition as possible for the tough missions ahead.

All the usual carping and criticism is heaped on our chief executive and his forthright team from all the usual suspects: the French, the Germans, the occasional U.S. representative or senator, Kofi Annan at the United Nations and various Arab functionaries.

And with all this -- American military pilots stepping up their attacks on Iraqi targets and more American men and war materiel headed east into harm's way for the coming action, a few Americans deemed it timely to visit Iraq.

First and foremost is the increasingly infamous Scott Ritter, a former Marine and former U.N. weapons inspector who was much in the news during his visits to Iraq during the Clinton administration. It is sad indeed to listen to what this once-loyal American has to say, now that he is very likely on the take to the tune of $400,000 from Iraqi sources close to Saddam, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

In a category all by himself is a member of Congress, Rep. Nick Joe Rahall of West Virginia. Rahall, a frequent Middle East traveler, visited Iraq the week before last and pontificated about the need to negotiate with Saddam and pursue peace.

Ritter and Rahall do a great disservice to their county in choosing to be propos for Iraq's despot. Americans should leave foreign and national-defense policy to the executive branch, where the Constitution has fixed responsibility for those gravely serious matters.