America----Where is your memory?

Am I the only one in this nation that knows or remembers that the George W Bush administration flew billions of dollars into Iraq, around the time of the "mission accomplished"?

How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish

Special flights brought in tonnes of banknotes which disappeared into the war zone

The US flew nearly $12bn in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it and how it was being spent.

The staggering scale of the biggest transfer of cash in the history of the Federal Reserve has been graphically laid bare by a US congressional committee.

In the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million notes, weighing 363 tonnes, were sent from New York to Baghdad for disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130 planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22 2004, six days before the handover.

Details of the shipments have emerged in a memorandum prepared for the meeting of the House committee on oversight and government reform which is examining Iraqi reconstruction. Its chairman, Henry Waxman, a fierce critic of the war, said the way the cash had been handled was mind-boggling. "The numbers are so large that it doesn't seem possible that they're true. Who in their right mind would send 363 tonnes of cash into a war zone?"

The memorandum details the casual manner in which the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority disbursed the money, which came from Iraqi oil sales, surplus funds from the UN oil-for-food programme and seized Iraqi assets.

"One CPA official described an environment awash in $100 bills," the memorandum says. "One contractor received a $2m payment in a duffel bag stuffed with shrink-wrapped bundles of currency. Auditors discovered that the key to a vault was kept in an unsecured backpack.

"They also found that $774,300 in cash had been stolen from one division's vault. Cash payments were made from the back of a pickup truck, and cash was stored in unguarded sacks in Iraqi ministry offices. One official was given $6.75m in cash, and was ordered to spend it in one week before the interim Iraqi government took control of Iraqi funds."

Can you even begin to imagine the uproar if current President Obama even thought of such a thing, let lone did it?

Then, not to be done there, that previous Republican, supposed Capitalist-loving president also made competition illegal?  Oh, yes he did.

Administration Opposes Democrats’ Plan for Negotiating Medicare Drug Prices

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 — The Bush administration said on Sunday that it would strenuously oppose one of the Democrats’ top priorities for the new Congress: legislation authorizing the government to negotiate with drug companies to secure lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries....

“The government negotiates big discounts for the prices of drugs for our veterans,” said Senator-elect Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. “But the drug companies got Congress to make it illegal to negotiate for lower prices under Medicare.”

So I ask you----am I the only one that remembers these things? These outrageious things? If a Democrat did either of these, he'd be figuratively crucified upon an alter of wrongness and unfairness and--in the case of flying planeloads of American cash from our own Federal Reserve into a war zone, only to be handed out--and then promptly impeached.

You have to hand it to Dubya'.  All this and torture and war crimes, too. 

And he got away with it all.

Saddam Hussein asks a great question

Congratulations, America, you screwed up Iraq

The Iraq War then and Iraq now and what we don't want to know, as Americans who did it:

"We wrecked Iraq. 

We caused the deaths of as many as a million people and displaced internally and externally, another 4.7 million. Today there are still more than a million Iraqis lost in their own country — internally displaced — mostly in Baghdad, according to unembedded journalist Dahr Jamail.

"Most of them have fled from sectarian cleansings," Jamail said when he was interviewed on Democracy Now! last year, on the 10-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. "They're living in horrible situations" — without government help, without hope for the future, surrounded by garbage, anticipating only more sectarian violence.

Our invasion wreaked havoc on the physical and social infrastructure of the country. And the weapons we used, including depleted uranium munitions and white phosphorous, shattered its health. In 2010, for instance, The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health published an epidemiological study, "Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005-2009," which found that Fallujah — the city we "cleared of terrorists" with two bloody assaults in 2004 — is experiencing higher rates of cancer, leukemia and infant mortality than Hiroshima and Nagasaki did in 1945.

The country as a whole, according to Jamail, has seen an enormous jump in cancer rates since the U.S. began dismantling it. In 1991, before the first Gulf War, there were 40 registered cases of cancer per 100,000 Iraqis, he noted. By 2005, "we saw 1,600 Iraqis with cancer out of 100,000."

And Fallujah, in particular, has been devastated by an increase in birth defects since 2004 — 14 times higher than the rate measured in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after they were bombed, according to Jamail.

It's common in Fallujah, he said, citing Iraqi Dr. Samira Alani, "for newborns to come out with massive multiple systemic defects, immune problems, massive central nervous system problems, massive heart problems, skeletal disorders, babies being born with two heads, babies being born with half of their internal organs outside of their bodies, cyclops babies literally with one eye — really, really, really horrific nightmarish types of birth defects. And it is ongoing."

This is the context in which war talk and the "vital interests" of empire must be placed. Such a context is unacceptable to the corporate and political status quo, of course; so the media it controls have begun to perform cosmetic surgery on recent U.S. history, resurrecting the goodness and purity of our intentions and the simplistic evil of "the terrorists." All they need to be successful is complete denial of reality.

But the invasion of Iraq, Jamail said, "is a crime against peace, according to the Nuremberg Principles." And that makes it, and all future wars, a crime against our own, and the planet's, vital interests.

Link to original post: Lies, Stupidity, Waste and War Crimes: Iraq and the Ongoing Calamity of America's "Vital Interests"

On the travesty that is the George W Bush Presidential Museum and its opening today (guest post)

I had the misfortune to wake up to a twisted bit of logic from Ed Gillespie on "Morning Joe" today. When the very best thing you can say about the Bush presidency is 'his personal approval rating always exceeded his job approval rating,' you know something's wrong. And neither Joe or Mika called him on it. Yes, I'm sure Dubya throws a hell of a backyard barbecue, but I require competence and a steadfast adherence to logic and facts from my president - and George W. Bush displayed none of those qualities during the eight years he served as chief executive.

Ed and Joe got together to discuss the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas today and spent most of their time glossing over the impact his administration had on our country. I expect that the coverage of the event on most networks (yes, even the "progressive" ones) will largely ignore the legacy of the Bush years and simply focus on who's there, what documents are archived and what President Obama's speechwriters might find to say that's positive about the former president during the building's dedication. It's a sham.

What I remember is that George W. Bush put Dick Cheney in charge of the country's counter-terrorism task force and he spent the next nine months refusing to meet with Richard Clarke. I remember them ignoring warnings that the system was "blinking red" and that 2,977 Americans died. I remember it only took six days for the Bush administration to draft a 12-page Memorandum of Notification authorizing the CIA to create secret prisons and torture anyone they felt might give them information. We suffered a horrific wound on September 11, 2001 - and on September 17, 2001 we responded by abandoning our morals. George W. Bush did that.

I remember that our professed "Christian" president ignored all evidence from the IAEA, millions of people around the world protesting and a personal plea from the Pope to launch a war that killed 100,000 Iraqis, 4,000 Americans and wounded another 31,000. George W. Bush did that.

I remember the 1,464 victims of Hurricane Katrina - and that FEMA's director should have been fired following the botched response to Hurricane Frances. I remember the 30,000 stranded in the SuperDome. “A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. Blood stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers. ‘We pee on the floor. We are like animals,’ said Taffany Smith, 25, as she cradled her 3-week-old son, Terry. [Los Angeles Times, 9/1/05] “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” George W. Bush said that.

I remember the Bush presidency as one of the most destructive periods of this American experience. I remember the estimated six trillion dollars wasted on unnecessary wars - and nearly twelve trillion dollars the economic collapse cost taxpayers. When you eliminate restrictions on predatory lending, capital requirements, and allow Wall Street to police themselves, bad things are going to happen - and they did. George W. Bush did that.

I remember George W. Bush for pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol, the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the International Criminal Court Treaty. I remember Valerie Plame. I remember 1,020 days spent on vacation. I remember him saying "intelligent design" should be taught to school kids because evolution is just a "theory" (completely missing the point that a scientific theory is accepted as an explanation based on observation, experimentation, and reasoning). I remember George W. Bush, but sadly we live in what Gore Vidal referred to as the "United States of Amnesia." There is nothing to celebrate today - this is a day to remember that all of our recent troubles can be traced to just one guy: George W. Bush. "They misunderestimated me."

--From the Tom Joad Facebook page today

A truth about The New York Times, the Iraq War and future wars

With as badly--horribly, really--as The New York Times buckled and let down both its readers and the nation on George W. Bush & Company's unprecedented, unwarranted, unnecessary and nationally and internationally illegal attack on and war with Iraq from 2003 on, doesn't it seem as though now they should be hounding down every fact and detail they can find on the hopefully remote possibility that we would now or are now or in the near future considering attacking Iran?

Don't you think they owe that to us, the American public, all their readers and the world?

I know I do.

I hope I'm not being naive.

And I hope I'm not being naive again.

Link: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2957

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2011/06/03/bill-keller-speaks-out-on-judy-miller-iraq-war/180289

Great news on George W. Bush and members of his administration

I just found this today:

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney Convicted Of War Crimes

In the first verdict of its kind since former President George W. Bush left office, he and several members of his administration have been successfully convicted in absentia of war crimes in Malaysia.

Former President Bush, Former Vice-President Dick Cheney, Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the legal advisers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo that crafted the legal ‘justification’ for torture that basically said, ‘we can if we want to even if it’s illegal’ were the defendants. None were present, of course, but international war crime trials do not require the presence of the accused. The trial was run according to the standards set by the Nuremberg Trials to convict war criminals after World War II.

Professor Gurdial Singh Nijar, who headed the prosecution said, “The tribunal was very careful to adhere scrupulously to the regulations drawn up by the Nuremberg courts and the International Criminal Courts”.

Let's be clear here, too. This is not about blaming him for any of our other, current problems or situations, far from it.

This is purely because he lied to us, the American public, about the situation in Iraq and then went against our own, internal, national laws as well as external, international ones, too, and attacked that foreign, sovereign nation pre-emptively and offensively.

Let me say again, folks: that's against international law. Period.

Then, too, there's this: "Bush and Cheney have not only brazenly admitted they authorized torture in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention, but bragged about it."

Somebody needed to do this. Thank goodness Malaysia and the Malaysians did.

We need more people and nations to do the same.

They likely won't, especially the more prominent, wealthy, Western nations and that's a shame.

There's something else to note about this good news here, too, though.

It hasn't been in our national news.

At all.

Not the major networks. Not one, I don't believe, and it shouldn't be overlooked. It's significant. As the article says, "It's a BFD."

Hopefully more countries follow their lead. We'll see. I'm not holding my breath.

The reason this is important is because it was all a lie and because it was against law and finally, because we need to learn from those mistakes.

This second Iraq War and anything like it needs to never be repeated.

If we don't learn, as a nation and a world, it likely will and there would be more needless deaths and tragedy.

Link: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/05/13/george-w-bush-dick-cheney-convicted-of-war-crimes/

Republicans' current complaint of the President

Karl Rove's "American Crossroads" group put out a video today, complaining that President Obama is, apparently, "too cool": Apparently they'd prefer we'd return to Mitt Romney, so we can have more things like this: God forbid. What a disaster that's been for us, to this day. And for them to complain about the state of our economy when they're so blatanly, obviously impeding the nation's progress is rich. And absurdly hypocritical. It's disgusting.

The new Wal-Mart, Mexico banking brouhaha

In case you didn't see it, there was a big, rather significaant, if not important article in yesterday's New York Times about Wal-Mart's Mexico banking company: Vast Mexico Bribery Case Hushed Up by Wal-Mart After Top-Level Struggle Confronted with evidence of widespread corruption in Mexico, top Wal-Mart executives focused more on damage control than on rooting out wrongdoing, an examination by The New York Times found.

There are far too many details for me to go on about it here. Suffice it to say, it should be huge, if it isn't totally ignored. I'd like to know three things: First, are there any charges that need to be filed here in the US against whomever is involved?

Next, are there any charges that need to be filed in Mexico? Personally, I hope this will be pursued by the press and justice systems of both countries and that if they find any wrongdoing, they are prosecuted to the full extent of the laws in both countries.

Finnally, I'd like to see if any international laws were broken, too, as well as any other nation's laws, in addition to Mexico's, and if they're prosecutable. This is, after all, the company that wants to be cleared as a banking company in this country, too, as they've made clear. I think for most Americans, it will be extremely illuminating that Wal-Mart is a banking company, also, in Mexico, besides a retailer. I hope it's fascinating just where these revelations go, in positive ways. Meaning, if laws were broken, I hope everyone liable is held accountable, not the least being corporate Wal-Mart, anywhere and everywhere they may have broken any laws. Keep in mind, that Wal-mart all but owns Arvest Bank here in the States, too. (See last link, below).

Links: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/business/at-wal-mart-in-mexico-a-bribe-inquiry-silenced.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120422; http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/22/8-revelations-from-walmart-s-mexican-bribery-scandal.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Farticles+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Latest+Articles%29; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvest_Bank

Things our soldiers are doing in our name

We send them over there. The least we could do is know what they're having to do for us.

Al Jazeera: the next, most important media source?

If you read any international news sources--and most Americans don't--it might easily be argued that the new, next, best international news source may well be Al Jazeera, passing up the BBC and other European news sources. Look at the list of their current "opinion" columns and sources: 'Attack Iran' and AIPAC's infamous chutzpah, MJ Rosenberg, Obama and Asia's two futures, Yuriko Koike; Leveraging hip hop in US foreign policy, Hishaam Aidi; Apartheid and the occupation of Palestine, John Dugard; The latest crackdown threat to hit 'Occupy', Danny Schechter; Conservatism blew up the economy, Cliff Schecter; The Commonwealth's missed opportunity, Malcolm Fraser; Goldstone walks alone on a bridge to nowhere, Richard Falk, America's other 87 deficits, Stephen S Roach; A gravity test for the euro, Kenneth Rogoff; Arms sales to Bahrain under the scanner, Joel Beinin, Internet freedom initiative mere lip service?, Jillian C. York; The all-American occupation; Steve Fraser; Kenya's blundering mission in Somalia , Tendai Marima. Food for thought. Want to know what's going on in the world? Al Jazeera seems to be another place to look.

America flaunts international law, more, again, still

First, President George W. Bush and Dick Cheney trounced international law by pre-emptively and unilaterally attacking Iraq for their 2nd Iraq War, against both popular opinion and, far worse, international law. We've been paying for that with soldiers lives, American prestige and money and materiel ever since. Next, there were "reports that the Obama administration had flown a Somali man accused of ties to terrorism to New York to face prosecution after holding and interrogating him at sea for more than two months." Yeehaw. At least we're consistent, huh? Now, finally today, anyway we find that Governor Rick Perry and the State of Texas "has executed a Mexican national for the kidnapping and rape of a 16-year-old San Antonio girl. Humberto Leal Garcia, 38, was put to death less than two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-to-4 vote, rejected pleas from the Obama administration for a delay to avoid what it called serious international repercussions." Here's where the problems come in regarding international law: "Texas authorities failed to inform him of his right to speak with officers from the Mexican consulate and failed to inform the consulate that a Mexican national had been arrested. Both of those failures violated a 1963 treaty signed by the U.S. Indeed, the consular access provision was added to the treaty at the insistence of the United States." But now, here's the tricky part, at least for the US--while we repeatedly trounce international law as shown by these 3 instances and more, regarding this last one, the US actually likes to use this treaty for its own citizens. Background: "The U.S. relies on the treaty to secure legal help and often to win release of Americans imprisoned abroad, some in countries such as Iran, Libya and Syria. Last year alone the U.S. invoked the treaty for 3,500 Americans imprisoned in other countries." So we like to invoke this law for our own citizens but for people of other countries and their governments, we figure "screw you guys, we're going our own way on this." If we were in school, the US would get a checkmark in the "Doesn't get along with others" column, at least. Can you say "blatant hypocrisy"? Trouble is, executing this Mexican National last evening was good for Texas Governor Rick Perry's presidential run that isn't even official yet. So one Humberto Leal Garcia died last night so Rick Perry could be shown as tough on crime and help his popularity. Yahoo, huh? Isn't that just terrific? I wonder what international laws we'll disregard next. And some people wonder why we have a not-so-great-name and reputation in some parts of the world. Links: http://www.representativepress.org/ViolatingInternationalLaw.html; http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/cra0868.htm; http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/u.s.-may-have-violated-domestic-and-international-law-capturing-and-holding-somali-months-sea; http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/texas-executes-mexican-national-after-supr; http://news.yahoo.com/texas-executes-mexican-court-stay-rejected-233305430.html; http://news.yahoo.com/un-official-us-execution-leal-broke-intl-law-160400028.html

Thank you, George W. Bush

From the news today:

Bush declines Obama's ground zero invite

– Tue May 3

WASHINGTON – A spokesman for George W. Bush says the former president has declined an invitation from President Barack Obama to attend an observance at New York's ground zero.

Obama plans to visit the site of the destroyed World Trade Center towers Thursday in the aftermath of a Navy SEALs raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The al-Qaida attack, which killed about 3,000 people, occurred in the early months of Bush's presidency in 2001.

The spokesman, David Sherzer, says the former president appreciated the offer to attend but has chosen to remain out of the spotlight during his post-presidency.

As I said, above, I, for one, am most appreciative and grateful that he is staying "out of the spotlight" at this and any and all times.

Did you read, years ago, as I did, during President Bush's presidency when he was in New York City at the UN, making a speech and he crossed paths with former President Bill Clinton and he was quoted as saying to an aide--paraphrased--that you wouldn't see him around after his presidency?  Remember that?  I sure do.  I'll never forget it.

True to form, now-former President Bush knew himself very well.  He knew that, once out of office, he wasn't about to do any "heavy-lifting."  

He didn't do any of it during his presidency, heaven knows--we wouldn't have attacked Iraq if he had, among many other things.  He surely isn't about to start doing any of it now.

What he lacked in judgement during his presidency, he seems to have gained now, now that he is out of office.

And for all that I am very, very grateful.

Americans: crazy or stupid or what?

That last president took us into a huge, hugely mistaken, wrong war by ATTACKING ANOTHER SOVEREIGN NATION  unprovoked all the while his (our) 13 intelligence agencies told him the leader of said country (Saddam Hussein, Iraq) was NO THREAT TO THIS COUNTRY but did the American people, by and large, say much?

Hell, no.

Sure, some of us protested, ahead of time, the attack on Iraq and the Iraqi people but by and large, the American people--including the people in Washington, a lot of whom should have known better--were behind the lying president and his administration.

Heck, the media--including The New York Times--all but lay down and roll over for the guy so he could go in and attack.

Now?  This time around, with this president, who only loaned some of our planes to attack a lunatic leader of another nation because he was outright KILLING HIS OWN PEOPLE?

This is what's happening:

Obama taking heat from all sides for Libya action

You bloody hypocrites.

You idiots. 

You morons.

You've got to be one of the 3.

And this coming from a peacemonger like me.

Sure, he'd better keep his promises that the attacks our planes are making are only short-term and that we're going to get out "in a few days" and sure, I'm skeptical about it and want to make sure we keep him to it, sure.

But for everyone on the Right and Left, his own political party and opposing ones to now come down on him this hard for doing what a week ago people were calling for and saying he was "going too slowly" and being "indecisive" is just hypocrisy or insanity or hypocritical insanity.

Dubya and "Darth Dick" must just be laughing their asses off right now.

Link to original story:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_exclusive/obama-taking-heat-from-all-sides-for-libya-action;_ylt=Ahi_PY6jT1oIQcCUFTTvbiVnhVID;_ylu=X3oDMTRudXNvMm5vBGFzc2V0A3libG9nX2V4Y2x1c2l2ZS8yMDExMDMyMi9vYmFtYS10YWtpbmctaGVhdC1mcm9tLWFsbC1zaWRlcy1mb3ItbGlieWEtYWN0aW9uBGNjb2RlA3VzbmV3c3ZpZXdzaGFyZQRjcG9zAzMEcG9zAzMEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNvYmFtYXRha2luZ2g-

On Bradley Manning and justice in the US

You know who Bradley Manning is, right?

He's the Army Pfc who leaked the government documents to Wikileaks about what all our government has been doing abroad that created such an uproar some months ago?  Remember?

Well, he's been arrested and thrown in jail (prison?) and he's being charged--with 22 counts as I understand it and it's said he may face the death penalty.

Sure, corporate banksters can steal billions of dollars from the country and not even get charged but this young guy leaks some easily-accessed government files and all of a sudden we get all self-righteous and want to kill somebody.

Anyway, news is out now that we are--no kidding--being told that his military jailers forced him to "sleep naked for several days last week."

Excuse me?

Why?

Is this the United States of freaking America where we treat people humanely or not?

First it was Abu Graib and the inhuman treatment we put those people through and now this?

Who are we as a country, anyway?

Who are we as a people?

Do we really believe and stand for what we used to think we stand for anymore?

I'd love to know.

And I'd love to know that we still stand for all that good stuff, too.

Remember?

All the "innocent until proven guilty" and the right of Habeus Corpus and human rights and "equal justice under the law" for everyone and everything like that?

Could we get back to that now?

Please?

Because we'd like our country back.

Links:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/11/AR2011031106542.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/03/bradley-manning-may-face-death-penalty
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=bradley+manning+news&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=98286c98e5a0f890

People being held accountable

An advertisement RootsAction, an American Human Rights group, placed in a Spanish newspaper:


A Spanish judge, acting under international law, will soon decide whether to investigate US officials' roles in authorizing torture. We hope you agree that such cases must go forward, despite pressure from the Obama administration to drop them.  The organizations sponsoring this advertisement represent hundreds of thousands in the American public who believe the US government must be held to the same rule of law as other countries. We thank the people of Spain for your courage, and ask for your support as your courts consider bringing American officials to justice for the crime of torture.


From their website:


Despite earlier assertions by President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder that waterboarding is torture, former President George W. Bush publicly stated three times last year that he authorized waterboarding and added proudly that he would do it again. In a TV interview aired on November 8, Bush said he considered waterboarding legal "because the lawyer said it was legal." Waterboarding and other forms of torture were banned by the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, ratified by the United States in 1994. 


Maybe people will be held accountable one day after all.  


I doubt it seriously but it would be nice.


Links:  http://warisacrime.org/content/american-human-rights-groups-place-ad-spanish-newspaper-encouraging-prosecution-us-war-crimi
http://rootsaction.org/

Gitmo' savings! (from SNL)

A new poll out right now and more from "W", the Chief Knucklehead

There's so much information coming out right now, about this last nightmarish 8 years of the Bush Administration it's dizzying.

Truly.

If only Molly Ivins were here to write about it--she was so right about this idiot.

Get this:

It seems "W" said "So what?" when told that there was no Al Qaeda in Iraq before he invaded that country in 2003. (Link to story and video here:
http://crooksandliars.com/cernig/bush-admits-al-qaeda-wasnt-iraq-invasion-so)

So what??

Are you effin' kidding me?

So what, George?

SO MORE THAN 4,219 AMERICAN SOLDIERS WOULDN'T BE DEAD!

So more than 100,000 Iraqis wouldn't be dead.

So thousands of American soldiers wouldn't be crippled by your stupid war.

So many more thousands of American soldiers wouldn't be suffering from PTSD.

So thousands of Iraqis wouldn't be crippled by your illegal, invasive, tragic war.

So we wouldn't still be in Iraq.

So we wouldn't have squandered the heretofore good American name and reputation if we didn't go in.

So there wouldn't be 2 million Iraqi refugees in the Middle East right now because their home country was blown apart, completely in violation of international law.

So there wouldn't have been an Abu Graib.

So there wouldn't have been all these pointless tragedies, stemming from this clusterbuck you created.

Anyone can go on and on here.

So what?

So we've squandered how much American capital on this mess so now we're in the largest debt of our country's history, just when we need money and infrastructure and jobs and much, much more, at home?

Holy cow.

How flip can one get?

Answer: "George Bush flip", that's how, and it's the worst, ever, like his Presidency.

And how does the American people feel about the "Knucklehead in Chief" now, at the end of this hellish nightmare?

Sure, most want him out of office.

According to a just-released poll from CNN, 75% of us want him out. (Link to original story here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/26/bush.poll/index.html)

And that stands to reason.

But, get this--only 28% think he's the worst President ever.

Further proof, ladies and gentlemen, that Americans just don't know history--even their own.