I'm adding a link to the site VA WATCHDOG over on The Left. On this the fifth anniversary of 'shock & awe' we should take a moment (maybe many moments) to remember the nearly 4,000 men & women who gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also, the hundreds of thousands from both conflicts who returned maimed in body & spirit. All the while His Smugness and cohorts continue to lie, cheat and steal as much as they can before January of next year.

I hope that there will come an end to this, if not next year than at least a beginning of an end. A return to what some of us still believe is a country of values and morality. Than again, maybe I'm being too optimistic.

I was a history major in college and have probably forgotton most of what I learned during those four years. I've been reminded of this when I began listening to the audiobook adaptation of Stephen Kinzer's "Overthrow: America's century of regime change from Hawaii to Iraq." Highly recommended and doubly so as you see that a little more than 100 years ago the American government began working with corporations to ensure U.S. economic superiority.

Some of the most frightening passages talk about the arguements used by politicians, business men and their media stooges to justify what they did and to stir up the public. Henry Cabot Lodge in the late 1890s would fit perfectly with the neo-cons of today. It's also sad to recall the 'real' Teddy Roosevelt both before and after that charge in Cuba.

I also want to recommend the articles over at SLATE titled, "Why did we get it wrong!" Some good pieces by folks who formerly supported the war, and of course, one by Christopher Hitchens on how he didn't.