It should also be mentioned that Salon risked going out of business to present subdued, factual, insightful analysis and opinion before and throughout the period of invasion and occupation of "Iraq." It may be bad taste to gloat, but it is important to remind the country that any decent, intelligent, honest person could see beforehand that the assault on "Iraq" was a bad idea, and an immoral one as well.

It didn't take a mindreader or truth analyst to see that Bush and his cronies were lying. The way they went about ginning up a war rationale was enough. The mere fact that the U.N. inspectors, led by Hans Blix, were ignored and not allowed to complete their work is evidence enough that the Bush gang was determined to invade no matter what.

What might result from the downfall of the Bush criminal regime is a second look at the first invasion of "Iraq." It was the precursor, the antecedent, that paved the way for the second invasion. It also was ginned up, lest we forget. The supposed atrocity of "Iraqi" invaders throwing babies in incubators to the floor was devised by the public relations firm Hill & Knowlton (read about it here: http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html).

If you knew the first "Iraq" "war" was a scam, you might have suspected that the second one would be also. When war crimes trials are ever held, the world might want to indict another George Bush.

Salon is worthy of great praise and thanks for its courage and intelligence in telling the truth when it was inconvenient. Maybe the next time a war is being ginned up, which, hmm, is right now, more people will pay attention.

Good analysis. I can make it simpler. The Bush regime is a criminal organization. We are so used to rhetoric that no one can take a statement like this as anything but hyperbole. It isn't. It is literally true. The Bush regime is a mafia, a crime syndicate, a gang, a criminal conspiracy, a mob. As such, everything they do is either criminal in act or done with criminal intent. That's what criminals do: crime.

The Bush regime is in a race against time. It is also in a race against impeachment, other prosecutions, and, if there is any justice in the world, imprisonment. For these reasons, they will do whatever they can to start a war with "Iran." War is the ultimate distraction. The U.N. Security Council, curiously compliant, is giving the Bush gang just enough political cover to launch an attack.

The "liberal" method of dealing with this scenario is to treat the Bush gang as if it were a legitimate political entity, and challenge it on "policy" grounds, when "policy" has nothing to do with what they are up to. So speeches are made, resolutions are put forward, and appearances are made on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, This Week, and the News Hour.

As far as CBS spouting the party line, Noam Chomsky explained this kind of reporting decades ago. To say that the "British" violated the "Iranian" territorial waters is simply beyond the bounds of thinkable thought. It's a cultural conditioning that confines thinkable thought within narrow limits. His book "Manufacture of consent" explains this phenomenon in detail. That this self-limitation puts CBS and other news organizations in complicity with a criminal gang is also beyond the bounds of thinkable thought.

The runup to bombing and/or invading "Iran" will intensify, and also will likely bring a number of surprises. At some point the U.S. military will have to see that they are being played for chumps in this criminal venture, and there may be a rebellion. Some key player in the Bush crime family may crack and tell all. Cheney may finally be too evil for his failing body, and drop dead. Bush may have a mental breakdown, or suffer a crisis of alcohol toxicity.

This is not a strong gang, though they try desperately to appear otherwise. They have to get up every day and lie, deflect, divert, defend, and scheme for an ultimately worldwide criminal plan. They are fallible, ethically challenged, not-so-competent blunderers. They depend on a network of corruption to support them. The more pressure that is applied to this gang, the more likely their criminal operation will fail. It is a house of cards, and they are very close to turning the United States of America into a house of cards. They can be easily defeated once we start thinking the unthinkable: that this is a criminal gang. If you repeat it enough times, it sinks in. This is a criminal gang. This is a criminal gang. This is a criminal gang.