After all, the editors agree with the folks who disrupted yesterday's hearings.

The American people deserve more than what the general and the diplomat offered them yesterday.

For that matter, they deserve more than what was offered by Representative Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. When protesters interrupted the hearing, Mr. Skelton ordered them removed from the room, which is understandable. But then he said that they would be prosecuted. That seemed like an unnecessarily authoritarian response to people who just wanted to be heard.

I'm curious -- will they be that indulgent when Americans they disagree with engage in the same tactics, whether in the halls of Congress or the newsroom of the New York Times? How about on the sidewalk in front of an abortion clinic, where the NY Times has long supported draconian punishments for nonviolent protesters engaged in sit-ins or even just trying to talk to women before an abortion.