Recently I heard Haifa Zangana, a novelist and former prisoner of Saddam Hussein's regime, give a speech in Boston in which she urged anti-war activists around the world to work in solidarity with -- not for -- Iraqis to achieve peace. It was a simple yet profound request. But how can Americans who oppose the war work with Iraqis as equals when, to many of us, they are nameless, faceless, and voiceless? It's the details that humanize, that enable us to understand people as individuals. And as the war drags on, we get increasingly fewer details about what life is really like in Iraq, making it difficult for even the best-intentioned anti-war American to see Iraqis as partners, rather than as a political project.

To jump into the conversation Dana started about male contraception, I have to echo what she says (in response to Matt) about female hormonal contraception being no picnic in the park, either.