Yes, the Russian siege of Grozny is brutal, but so was the siege of Vicksburg during our Civil War, and the Union bombardment of Petersburg, Virginia, which created a desolation of ruins. War is hard on civilians, as we proved in our aerial bombardment of Serbia. Who are we to complain of Russian brutality?

In the big picture, Mr./Ms. President, Chechnya is political insurance to keep the good guys in power in Russia. Vladimir Putin looks set to win the Russian presidency in the March elections. Despite our misgivings about his KGB past, Putin is the man we want to win; he is the West's one hope of continuing reform in Russia. The war's popularity has trumped the candidacies of the fascist and Communist enemies of reform. Absent the war, the election would be about reform's failures, not least an unemployment rate believed to be north of 25 percent. The war has bought reform precious time, giving the West one more chance to make good on its promises to aid capitalism and democracy. The citizens of Grozny are dying that Russian democracy may live.

Beyond Chechnya, are we sure we want to establish a new foreign-policy doctrine based on our humanitarian intervention in Kosovo? Mr./Ms. President, the so-called Clinton Doctrine is a blueprint for endless intervention abroad. We conduct foreign relations with states, not with citizens of the world. The condition of those relations is respect for sovereignty. How would we like China holding up trade relations in the name of human rights for U.S. "political prisoners" -- a plausible category for young black men jailed in the war on drugs? We cannot let concern for human rights stand in the way of our economic and security interests, or impede our state-to-state relations.