do you feel safer now than you did four weeks ago?

background entertainment: Tom Waits, "Alice"

The entire rationale behind the War on Iraq (it is not a war with Iraq - to call it that would be like calling an execution by firing squad a "pitched battle") was to remove the so-called threat that Saddam Hussein posed to the United States and the rest of the Free World.

Does anybody even remember that anymore?

I never believed it, and I still haven't seen any proof. Neither do I expect to see any proof. And don't tell me that the proof has been destroyed by "bunker buster" bombs. It was never there.

No, this has always been a bully-war of retribution waged by one group of thugs against another thug who, fortunately for the aggressors, was one evil mo**erf***er.

Sure, it is great to see our soldiers and armaments tested, proved and shown to be the best. After all, they are the best, and we know it; and who will believe it if we don't show them once in a while?

The Iraqi people have lived for far too long under an evil, foul, horrifying despot. He did not hesitate to imprison, torture and murder outright his own people. Neither did Idi Amin; we didn't invade and level Uganda. Neither did Allende; we didn't invade and conquer Chile. I could go on, but what would be the point? Either you agree with me or you don't; I seriously doubt that I will convince anybody to change their minds today.

What I am concerned about is the idea that this war was posited to the American and British public as "a public service," not for Iraqi people, but for the American and British people: Saddam was the source of all evil, and must be cleansed from the face of the Earth.

Sadly, what is far more likely is that the Islamic uprising, which was fading after the disappearance of bin Laden, now has a new martyr: an entire nation! Yes, boys and girls, the Great Satan, America, has now proven itself to be the colonial Empire that it has tried so hard to deny being. "Good gracious, did you hear, they even had a motorized Howitzer named the 'Crusader?' "

The ghost of Saladin must be appearing in the dreams of potential suicide bombers the world over. All of the good ambassadorial works works of all the Presidents since FDR have been thrown out the window by one dingus and his Insane Billionaire Posse.

Even Nixon made nice with the enemy. That'll make you think.