President Bush was covered live, by the television networks, issuing an official “pardon” to the family’s Thanksgiving turkey. The bird’s life will be spared by executive fiat. Meanwhile, the killing of men, women, and children continues apace in Iraq, with no indication of imperial sentiment on behalf of the lives of human beings. Perhaps Mr. Bush finds self-serving precedential value in the official pardoning of turkeys, for the day when he is called to account for his atrocities.