Happy Victory-in-Iraq-Day (VID)

Today used to be known as May Day.

On the fourth anniversary of George Bush having announced his mission accomplished, is it possible to say anything new or newsy? I mean, as I look back through the earlier pages of The Vigil and Sozadee, I have been blogging a helluva long time about America's greatest self-inflicted debacle in its short history. At this point, if my standards for myself are to say something entirely fresh and novel, I might as well end my VID post at this point. On the other hand...

I could just summarize how far we have come: how far George Bush has brought us since that fateful day when he 'changed everything' for us: March 20, 2003. At great risk of being repetitive, then, I'll make just three points.

1. The "war" Bush started has now outlasted World War II by 156 days. War is in quotes, because we have not been in war all that time. Our dear leader announced four years ago today that the mission, which he had set for himself before even before becoming a nominated presidential candidate, had been accomplished:

   Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. (Applause.) And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country . . . . The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done. Then we will leave, and we will leave behind a free Iraq.

   Bush had declared a victorious end to the war he had illegally started and the beginning of a new (and, as it turned out, largely unplanned) mission of occupation. Others have disputed with me whether the war is really over, but it's been my argument that it surely is. It certainly is; it is as long as our current band of misleaders who so declared it remain in power. In so doing, Bush assigned the greatest fighting machine in world history to occupation duty, committing military malpractice.
2. Thanks to this illegal un-provoked, unnecessary, largely unilateral invasion and unplanned occupation of Iraq (IUULUIUOI), we can say that Bush has inflicted more harm on the United States of America than Osama bin Laden has.
3. Finally, having won what Bush called the 'Battle of Iraq', there can be no question of losing in Iraq. Occupations are not won or lost, they are ended.

It's time.