Posted 3/20/2006 05:21:00 PM by Douglas

Looks like I'm going wrap up today in one tidy post. That's fine. I don't have a lot to say, and it's all related to the same subject. Here's a timeline of it. I'm not a Kerry supporter and/or democrat, and I know that reasonable people will always disagree, but could someone put the FoxNews down for five seconds and tell me what the war in Iraq has accomplished for its astronomical pricetag? I mean shit, the Bushies lost (lost) $9 Billion in Iraqi aid. Come on. You don't lose more than a Billion before people start asking questions. But that's neither here nor there.

The most troubling part of this conflict is what brought us to war in the first place. The notion of pre-emption. From the time of the founding fathers on down, the notion of dealing with criminals was waiting 'till they did wrong. Now, in 2001, Bush wants to change all that and make it perfectly legal to go after "terrorists" before they do anything that's illegal.

If this gives you pause, loyal reader, it should not. This flies in the face of over 200 years of case law and civil jurisprudence. Hell, it wasn't even a decent Thomas Mapother movie. But to say that this is even remotely American is an insult to the American Liberties we've enjoyed:

President Bush reaffirmed his strike-first policy against terrorists and enemy nations on Thursday and said Iran may pose the biggest challenge for America.

In a 49-page national security report, the president said diplomacy is the U.S. preference in halting the spread of nuclear and other heinous weapons.

"The president believes that we must remember the clearest lesson of September 11 -- that the United States of America must confront threats before they fully materialize," national security adviser Stephen Hadley said.

Why? So he can ignore them when they actually materialize?

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a ---- service in 1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman and other U.S.-held extremists.

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

Um, how did this guy get re-elected? It looks as though his amen choir has slowly been turning on him, so who knows whom we're going to invade next.