Speculating how Twain or any other author might respond to contemporary politics is always interesting -- and, in a way, a form of useful criticism, just so long as we can tell the difference between supposition and imposition. It also matters WHICH Twain, the one who went to the Sandwich Islands as a pro-annexationist or the one who denounced the massacre on Jolo. Interestingly, when the US recently announced it was sending troops to fight in the Philippines, an uproar broke out, since the Philippines constitution forbids foreign troops fighting on the islands. I haven't heard what happened, what attempt at twisting language in order to get away with the deed, but I believe that there was some attempt at making the US troops part of an "exercise" -- just an exercise that happens to shoot at people. Does anyone know the status of the situation? They were to be sent to Jolo, and the New York Times reported that memories of "The Moro Massacre" that Twain denounced are fresh on the island. How eerie. All in all, I can feel confident that the elderly Twain would denounce the dispatch of those troops -- and he would pour sarcasm on the "coalition of the willing" while equally skewering Saddam Hussein's tyranny. And he would still retain the honor of being denounced as unpatriotic, even a traitor, and he would be proud. Hilton Obenzinger Stanford University