And why can't the populace be skeptical of the trite words that are used to justify this senseles war? Why has lazy thinking made it accepable that defunding this outrage equals wishing harm to come to the soldiers on the ground? What adolescent thought pattern has overtaken the American public discourse? And why isn't any major politico talking back to this nonsense? Ron Paul, of Texas, tried to speak to the issues but was overtaken by the dim-witted likes of Juiliani!!

Can any wisdom come forth to combat this dumbed-down country?

At this moment I feel very discouraged for this country.

Or not.

My guess is that many of us didn't attend a Memorial Day service, or parade, or even watch one on television. Memorial Day is a day for long road trips, for picnics, for grilling dogs & burgers, for getting together with relatives. Basically, just another three-day weekend. Notable mainly because that's when the outdoor swimming pools open (and you can get your first sunburn of the summer!)

America's soldiers haven't fought for "our freedom" since WWII. They have fought to protect our Corporations, and too often, our Delusions, like the Domino Theory and Saddam's Nukes.

The 1960s was a time when college students, raised on the dogma of American goodness, rose in protest as they realized the United States wasn't practicing what it claimed to. They started movements, got into politics, to correct the perceived deficiencies. America ended up better for it - more free, more equal, more open, its government more accountable, just as it had always said it was.

Most of these reforms have been reversed by The Current Occupant and his Republican predecessors.

Maybe it's time for another revolution. Maybe we can "get back to where [we] once belonged."

Sobering to travel the world and see how far we have fallen. Now America is the pariah nation bar none. Of course the rest of the world was clear all along about the lies told to start the war, down to every detail debunked daily on their front pages but somehow missed by the AP and CNN. So they waited for the America of their hopes and dreams to self-correct, but we reelected the slimeball and that was the limit. The penalty for making that kind of a mistake as a country, and still refusing to correct it until way past too late, is to simply go out of business.

What I find galling is the thought that in 600 days the Current Occupant will leave office and the mess in Iraq to someone else and will fly off on Air Force One to an honored retirement in Texas. And there, he will tend to the making of the monumental edifice of his presidential library. He will be consulted by the press like he's the Oracle of Delphi. And, in 20 years at a Republican National Convention they will spend a night celebrating his achievements and singing his glory much like now happens for Ronald Reagan.

But, on further reflection, I don't think that is the future that awaits him. Once he is out of office, any remaining support will disappear as even the low 20 percent who still believe on his last day in office finally abandon him. It will then turn out that the only reason they still supported him was because they couldn't bear the thought that he sent maybe 5,000 Americans to needless deaths and caused the death and displacement of probably millions of other people.

He will live out his days knowing that he utterly failed and is the most reviled man on the face of the earth. And he will know it because nobody will come to see him or ask his views on anything. In short, the Current Occupant will probably wind up as a man without a country.

Nor will his pain be broken by the knowledge that future historians will honor him. For it will be evident that the current historians will be labeling him for the benefit of future historians as the worst in our history. To prove their point, they will search the annals of Roman History to find an emperor who caused greater damage to his country.

So, don't despair over the lies he tells now over good soldiers graves. It will be those lies that will become the basis of recollections of him.

That's the problem. It is time for the truth to be told and we cannot bring ourselves to tell it.

We can speak the truth until we're blue in the face and drained of our last salty tear. As long as one doesn't mind being excoriated, belittled, harassed and ignored - and that's just from Democrats - voicing unpleasant truths is as worthwhile, and dangerous, as it's always been.

American culture, as dictated by our national religion of Consumerism, is largely monolithic in its lack of intellectual curiosity. We prefer myth to reality, and every institution competing for the money in our pockets and the blood coursing through our veins is more than happy to present that myth as truth. There's big money in myth. Truth, not so much.

Most Americans have no idea such a dichotomy even exists; to the extent they entertain the occasional doubt, precious few are willing to part with the only belief system they have ever known. The American Myth is an old pair of jeans - baby soft, with worn holes and busted seams - that we know we'll never fit into again, yet cannot bring ourselves to discard.

Those who possess some awareness of where myth and truth intersect and diverge are richly rewarded for using that knowledge for material gain. No one is easier to exploit and control than the American man or woman who accepts conventional wisdom at face value. I should know: I'm in advertising.

Conversely, speaking the truth - regardless of how one chooses to deliver it - is more likely to yield social alienation, a conflagration at your next family gathering or a long, long wait for a brand new job that pays half as much as your old one.

Face it: In our society, lying pays. It might even get you a Medal of Honor or a seat in Congress or The White House. At the very least, even for a peon like me, the skilled liar gets the promotion over the skilled worker who feels compelled to tell the truth.

Myth is America's drug of choice. It's a damn hard habit to break.