The events described in this article expose the greater failures of congress and the media than that of the administration. That the administration would run a disinformation campaign in the run up to a war is not unusual, or in some cases (in regards to military tactics) not unwelcome. Administrations have often proposed fictitious casus belli for war. Gulf of Tonkin incident being the one used in Viet Nam. The administration had a plan. They stuck to it. They attempted to discredit anyone who would throw their plan off track. They boosted anyone who supported the plan. Simple.

There is a greater failure in this mess. It is completely revisionist for the media to come around now and suggest that Joe Wilson's information was detrimental (at the time) or exposing. I remember the events surrounding the exposure of his wife. The media, in general, attempted to look the other way on the whole affair. Many, as I recall, actually tried to bring down Joe Wilson and Valery Plame. I remember how this played. Joe Wilson had to personally go after Cheney, in order to save himself from the administration, before the media even started to push a little and investigate this story. The media asked the president if he would fire anyone who was involved in this leak. The president said he would. The vice president, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Ari Fleicher have all been exposed has being involved in this leak. Has the media hammered Bush on firing Cheney? Have they researched where the disinformation (forged documents) came from in the first place? They are still just echoing leaks and parroting each other's information. Is there a fucking investigative reporter in the lot of them? They are too busy going to parties, driving around in limos, and brushing up against power like a bunch of fawning groupies.

Now lets get to congress. We'll just use Hillary Clinton as the example here. She voted for the resolution to go to war...without debate. Without debate. Without investigation. Without so much as glancing in another direction. Most importantly...overtly ignoring the warning signs of impending trouble. She is pretending now that she, along with all her congressional colleagues got hoodwinked. You had Hans Blix, Scott Ritter and every other weapons expert saying that they were not finding WMDs. You have history (Gulf of Tonkin) that would lead one to be suspicious. You have Wilson. You have the CIA. You have a thousand reasons to stick your head up and peep. Not a peep. Now everyone who voted for the resolution wants to hang the bad war around Bush's neck. He tricked us. He failed in the war. It is all his fault.

Wrong. The failure is primarily with congress. They are the check. They are supposed to be the balance. They are supposed to investigate. To question. They were on the intelligence oversight committees. They had access to more information. They even have history as a guide. To this date they are still just following. No one even mentions the elephants of oil and war contracting when referring to this war. The administration has implied as though it is fact that there has not been a civil war in Iraq since two days after the occupation. The congress and the media follow. The administration has implied as though it is fact that mistakes in implementation have lead to the failure of the war, when the war was actually doomed before we even set foot there. The congress and the media follow. The administration has always has implied as though it is fact that there are ties to foreign influences, first with Al Qaeda and now with Iran. The congress and the media follow. Every way to view this war has been established by the administration. The congress and the media only address their response according to that false view.

Hillary Clinton is complicit in the failure of the Iraq war. She and every other member of congress are complicit in the mayhem of that region. She is complicit in the death of every soldier and every citizen. She is complicit in the failure of democracy in America. And for that she, and every member of congress who has failed us, should be run out of congress and should never be elected President.

The choice is clear. Leave the funding in place and leave the troops in the middle of a civil war with no exit strategy or mission...or cut the funding and pull the troops home. Irregardless of how the action is spun in the press and how it is used by the administration to discredit those who would act, the right choice is clear. Someone had to make the decision to leave Viet Nam. This decision requires courage.