I was going through the old SKB archives looking for posts about the run up to the Iraq invasion, trying to come up with a summary of what the mood was like in the Fall of 2002 and early 2003.

I found some funny stuff, some poorly written stuff, some confused stuff, even some hawkish stuff early on when we were all still furious and hurting over 9/11 (not that it's worn off much, but there have been many distractions and sideshows since). I may put together a compendium of some of those posts sometime.

But it appears my feelings evolved over time, and I finally arrived at this "Special Commentary" style rant which seems to sum it all up. Sadly, not much has changed four and a half years later...

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The Bush Administration has occupied the White House for 751 days. During that time, we have experienced one of the worst economic declines in history, we've erased trillions of dollars in personal wealth, we've turned record budget surpluses into record deficits, two million people have lost their jobs, we've suffered unprecedented terrorist attacks on our own soil, we've turned former allies against us, and we are a nation at war.

Are we better off today than we were 751 days ago? It doesn't appear so. After squandering the gains of an unprecedented economic expansion and reversing a decade of peace and prosperity in only two short years, it is about to get worse.

Our government and our very idea of America has been hijacked by a corrupt band of marauding robber barons with no regard for civil rights, the welfare of the American people, or our standing in the court of world opinion. And "we the people" aren't doing anything about it.

The attack of September 11, 2001 certainly changed things. It was a reminder that we are vulnerable, not only to threats by rogue states but also to the threats of twisted ideologies. But terrorist attacks aren't a license for unilateral world domination, or an excuse for withdrawal and isolation from the world community, or a justification for suppression of civil rights and systematic invasion of our privacy, or an excuse to ferment our own twisted ideologies.

Attacks by Saudi, Yemeni, and Afghan terrorists are also not an excuse to invade Iraq. But for whatever reason, the Bush Administration is determined to make a case for war. Despite all the gamesmanship and a massive propaganda campaign, however, they have not done so.

The former Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is not convinced of the need to invade Iraq. The Commander of U.S. Forces during Desert Storm is not convinced. The former U.S. NATO Commander is not convinced. The former House Republican Majority leader was not convinced. Leaders of our allies and democracies around the world are not convinced. The CIA is not convinced. Even the Secretary of State, until recently, was not convinced.

The 3000 victims of the 9/11 attacks paid the ultimate price for living in a free society. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan suffered the ultimate retribution for their murders. Action, reaction. Provocation, response. Attack, retaliation. That is the America we were, the America we used to be.

The world noted our response. No nation in the world believes they can perpetrate such an attack on the United States and survive. Only insane ideologues with nothing left to lose, operating in the shadows of a criminal underground without borders to further their twisted agenda, would attempt such an attack. And they are in fact still at large, plotting against us. And we continue to buy oil from their financial and ideological supporters, and we allow a country that harbors them and attacks our ships in their ports to purchase missiles and other implements of war from our other enemies.

Yet there is no credible evidence they are operating out of Iraq. Certainly, Iraq would seem sympathetic to their hatred of America, along with Syria, Libya, and a host of other hostile cesspools of perverted religious fanaticism and corrupt regimes. But are we to become like them in order to deal with them?

In 1991 we went to the aid of Kuwait when an insane dictator intent on seizing their oil invaded them. Now in 2003, some would say the United States is proposing a similar war of aggression against Iraq.

At no time in American history have we proposed such a massive, unilateral, preemptive strike against a sovereign nation, no matter how despotic their government or how loudly they rattle their sabers. Only when the sabers are drawn and blood is spilled do we respond. Past threats such as the Cuban Missile Crisis were resolved without war, and the Cold War was won through deterrence and a commitment to higher principles -- American principles of freedom and restraint.

But George W. Bush is not to blame. That would be giving him too much credit. He is clearly the mindless, inarticulate, simpering dupe of a larger political machine, and he would not be president without them. In fact, his record of moral, corporate, and political corruption paints a picture of a man to be pitied, not feared or reviled.

Republicans, though, will defend their President and his dangerous and unprecedented foreign policies, just as they defend his ruinous economic policies and his attacks on our Constitutional protections against tyranny and the separation of church and state.

Such partisan cheerleading is no different, really, than blindly following a philandering Commander in Chief down the road of creeping socialism. But all we suffered were some Federal handouts to poor people, a few celebrities sleeping over in the Lincoln bedroom, and some Oval Office indiscretions. And, yes, they were influenced from time to time by groups such as the NAACP and trade unions who wanted a better America for those who built it, and trial lawyers who wanted compensation for protecting Americans from corporate greed and crimes against society.

Conservative cheerleaders and Bush apologists, on the other hand, are following the current administration down a road of economic disaster and war. They are being played by the likes of the Carlyle Group, Halliburton, Hess Corporation, Enron, Peabody Coal, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon. They are allowing their 401Ks and pension plans to be raided and plundered by corrupt politicians, the henchmen of a corporate robber baron oligarchy. They are trading our environment for cheap power and our core values for huge executive bonuses, hoping against hope that some paternalistic largess will trickle down their way. They are allowing policies of groups such as The Heritage Foundation, The Christian Coalition, and the Council of Conservative Citizens to shape a new conservative agenda of deepening class division and hate.

But worse, by blindly following and supporting this corrupt gang of thieves and criminals, self-styled patriotic conservatives are allowing men to be sent off to die for profits and repressive ideologies under the flag of the United States of America. Our so-called leaders are systematically perverting everything that flag stands for and that past generations fought and died for. Their patriotic enablers see fascinating intrigue and brilliant international diplomacy where there is only bad political theater, for which the price of a ticket is the blood of American soldiers.

And they dare call those who oppose them unpatriotic. They dare call us traitors. These men are not patriots. These men are criminals. These are the real traitors.

But this is not about Republicans and Democrats, or the right and the left, or conservatives and liberals, or isolationists and imperialists, or pacifists and warriors. It is about America.

The election of 2000 was a sham. We have allowed an enormous, unchecked political machine, powered by vast sums of money, influence, lies, and hubris to corrupt the very foundation of our society and our government - free elections.

That same political machine, run by former Nixon henchmen and corrupt energy executives who lust for oil and money and power, is now leading us to war without justification or provocation against another corrupt regime they helped install.

Yet we do nothing. At what point do Americans say "enough" and take back America? It is time to impeach President George W. Bush and remove his shadow corporate government and his corrupt puppet masters from power before any more damage can be done. It is time to banish the real traitors from our government. It is time for the people from whom its power derives to take back our government and to once again assume responsibility for our future.

OK, then.