Our reasons for invading Iraq (news - web sites) shift like the tiles in a kaleidoscope: because its weapons of mass destruction imperiled us; because its government was totalitarian; because we want to bring it democracy.

Meanwhile, what has happened to democracy and free speech here? Consider:

* Some Republican U.S. senators, including Maine's Olympia Snowe and Ohio's George Voinovich, advocated limiting tax cuts. For that, they are described as unpatriotic and likened in TV ads from the Club for Growth as similar to the French. These senators have been excoriated as unpatriotic enemies of the president because they spoke their consciences and attempted to promote an alternative point of view. Isn't the notion of a diversity of voices something we've advocated in Iraq?

* The Baseball Hall of Fame canceled an event with actors Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon because of their anti-war views. Although the stakes are much lower, here's that notion again that there is no room for diversity in our democracy. While some Americans are defending First Amendment rights abroad, others are stomping on them at home.

* Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator, was attacked after he advocated ''regime change'' in the White House. GOP strategists suggested Kerry is unfit for public office simply because his comment was an unwarranted attack on the president, someone they apparently perceive as impervious to criticism during times of conflict. Yet unless I've missed a constitutional change, American voters decide every four years whether to have regime change in the White House.

* President Bush (news - web sites) has promised that the United States will work to ''restore electricity and water supplies, medical care and other essential services in Iraq.'' It is ironic that Bush would promise the residents of a foreign country services that still are unavailable to many millions of Americans -- most notably, access to adequate health care.

The United States shows its best face to the world when it offers hope, democracy, free speech and a decent standard of living to another country's oppressed citizens. But we're being two-faced if we don't also offer the same to all Americans.

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