Playwright, president, and pundit Vaclav Havel died peacefully this morning at his home in the Czech Republic. He was a leading dissident in Soviet-dominated Czechoslovakia, a leader of the Velvet Revolution, and a founding father of the post-communist Czech democracy.
Unabashedly outspoken in defense of liberty, Havel supported the war against Saddam Hussein in Iraq; supported Israel and the United States in an increasingly hostile Europe; and continued defending human rights throughout his political career and beyond.
The world was richer for his presence and is greatly bereaved by his absence.