You know how much the US has damaged its own cause in the Middle East when you read one of the most vocal (and sophisticated) Arab neo-conservatives, Hazim Saghiyyah of Al-Hayat (who had a stint last year at the pro-Likud Washington Institute for Near East Policy)talking about US behavior in Iraq "combining Sadism and racism." (from his column in Saturday's issue). (You probably know that Sadism is derived from the name of the notorious The Marquis de Sade, on whom there are two new good biographies. The longer one, I remember, is better than the other. It is interesting (disturbing?) that Simone De Beauvoir edited a book of de Sade's writings.)