Black Box Report

Has it been 5 years already? How time flies when you're sacrificing blood and treasure. So much has happened. So let's recap:

No WMD's

No operational links between Iraq and al Qaeda

No al Qaeda in Iraq until after the invasion

No plan for post-war Iraq

A strategy of denial:

Each year of the war has been characterized by a central lie by the Bush propaganda machine.

Year 1: "There is no guerrilla war."
Year 2: "Iraq is a model democracy."
Year 3: "Zarqawi is causing all the trouble."
Year 4: "There is no Civil War."
Year 5: "Everything is calm now."

I also suggest that John McCain is pushing for:

Year 6: "Total victory is around the corner."

Making up stories about Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman

Disbanding the Iraq Army fueled the insurgency

So did Abu Ghraib

And we are still not greeted as liberators:

How can Cheney be greeted as a liberator if he only makes "surprise visits" to Baghdad? If things were going so well -- five years later -- why would Cheney need a surprise visit? Cheney was so confident about being greeted as a liberator, why does he sneak into Iraq? Why not announce the visit in advance so the Iraqis can plan the parade?

Insufficient armor for US troops

Military stretched to the breaking point

Mistreatment of vets here at home

Delusions of Romanticism:

“I must say, I’m a little envious,” Bush said. “If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.”

“It must be exciting for you…in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger.”

This is the chickenhawk worldview at its absolute purest: a guy who ducked out on his chance to actually go and fight in the war (romanticizing) the concept of other people fighting one, and rattling on about what an exciting, picaresque fantasy adventure it all must be.

Every living male in my family other than me has fought in a war — Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf or Iraq. None of them exactly regrets his service, and there’s a wide range of opinions among them about politics and the necessity of the various wars in which they fought. It’s not a homogeneous group by any means, with plenty of die-hard liberals and plenty of stone-ribbed conservatives. But not a #@*%!^$ one of them in a million years would describe their wartime experiences as “romantic.”

Rampant corruption among Iraqi police

Insurgency in its "last htroes" - in 2005

Basic services in Baghdad at lower-then pre-invasion levels

Iraqi oil profits have not paid for the war

Cost of oil has more than tripled, even as hundreds of thousands of barrels are stolen every day, also fueling the insurgency

America’s respect in the rest of the world, never mind the Middle East, greatly diminished

American contractors killing unarmed Iraqi civilians

Tens of thousands of Iraqis dead, millions more forced to leave their homes.

And other quality of life issues:

Countless Iraqi civilians are dead, maimed, missing family members, homes, and all that makes life normal. Women the Bush Administration claimed to have liberated from the spectre of Saddam Hussein's "rape rooms" are now resorting to prostitution to feed their children.

US presence in Iraq used as a recruiting tool for al Qaeda

Shiite dominated Iraqi government strengthens Iran

And some people still can't tell who's on whose side

Only 3 of 18 US mandated benchmarks have been met by the Iraqi government

The Surge is not working

Actual cost of the war is now ten times higher than the administration predicted

...And of course, nearly 4,000 American troops are dead.

Not that many people would know that

There's more, I'm sure, much more, but I'm out of time.

Maybe next anniversary.