I found myself one evening nearly eight years ago n a political chatroom discussing the events of the recent election. It was the the evening of the Supreme Court's decision to halt the democratic process and hand the election to George Bush. I was incensed by this decision and I railed away at Bush denouncing him as a fraud and a moron. His presidency, I predicted, would be a disaster for America. I wrote that all Americans had a duty to oppose any and all policies that this pretender might try to force upon the country. Still basking in their ill gotten victory, the conservatives in the chatroom were horrified by my talk. One of them went so far as to call me a traitor. (Nothing offends conservative sensabilities as much as the mere whiff of dissent.) Well, my friends, eight years have passed and you know what? Everything I said that night about George Bush has come true. Everything his supporters said has been wrong. Absolutely everything. There are those, like Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria, who acknowledge his failures yet seem to believe that Bush deserves some credit for trying to correct his blunders. I might be inclined to agree were it not for a few simple truths. Bush's failures were not the result of well intentioned policies aimed at situations he inheirited. Nor were they the result of simple poor judgement in the face of events that were forced upon him. No, Bush's failures are the direct result of situations that he and his regime criminally and wilfully created. For this he should never be forgiven. The war in Iraq was a war of choice based ENTIRELY on fraud and lies. Over 4000 American soldiers and more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians are dead because of this evil man's disregard for simple human deceny. At Nuremberg, we gave such actions names like waging a war of aggression, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. This is how George Bush should be remembered. This should be his legacy. There are those here who have written that we should move forward and not dwell on Bush's mistakes. I respectfully disagree. Just as Germans must never foget what their country did during the Second World War, Americans must never forget the shame of these past 8 years. Those in Congress on both sides of the aisle should share in the burden of shame, Republicans for rubber stamping Bush's policies, Democrats for refusing to provoide opposition, deciding instead to be "good Germans." Only by facing up to the evil that has been done by George Bush in our name will we be able to move out from under the dark cloud that has been his presidency. Unfortunately, I fear that the stain he left on this nation will remain for may years after his stench has been removed from the White House.









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