■"U.S. Plans Deployment of Antipiracy Attaches," by Greg Hitt, Wall Street Journal, 21 September 2005, p. A5.

■"Worry Over Trade Pacts Roils Washington: Lawmakers of Both Parties May Be Vulnerable to Voter Backlash Over Job Losses," by Greg Hitt, Wall Street Journal, 20 September 2005, p. A4.

Commerce is making ready a team of intellectual property (IP) specialists to deploy to nations giving us fits on piracy. Sort of a WTO-enforcing SWAT team.

The lead experience here is China, and that is all fine and good. This is where our "conflict" with China should really be centered: in economics and in rules.

Other countries targeted are all either New Core (Russia, India, Brazil) like China, or key Seam States (Thailand) or places where we're making a special trade effort to shrink the Gap (Big Bang-land Middle East).

Good move, I say. One the White House can point to in upcoming trade pact battled with Congress, which, in its infinite wisdom, is moving more and more toward protections as a catch-all answer for America's economic woes. Bad, stupid, ahistorical choice, but there it is.