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Imperial Bush
A closer look at the Bush record -- from the war in Iraq to the war on the environment

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Will Americans take the exit ramp off the Bush presidency in November?

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Colin Powell's sterling reputation in Washington hides his life-long role as water-carrier for conservative ideologues.

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Rev. Sun Myung Moon and American politics

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Our Web Site & Three Years of War

A Retrospective
March 21, 2006

Editor's Note: Over the past three years, we have tried to provide a truthful account of the Iraq War, from the early days of "shock and awe" to the present drift toward "civil war." In doing so, we have always tried to look past George W. Bush's happy talk and Washington's conventional wisdom to track the logic -- or illogic -- of the administration's policies.

Simply following that trajectory revealed outcomes far more troubling and far less favorable than U.S. officials and media pundits led the American people to believe. As the Iraq War enters its fourth year, we have pulled together links to a collection of our Iraq War stories written as the tragedy unfolded:

Immediately after George W. Bush ordered the invasion on March 19, 2003, we began seeing a war different from the one being presented in the U.S. news media to the American people.

Our early reporting on the war described selective media outrage ("International Law a la Carte") and the failure to challenge Bush's wishful thinking ("Bay of Pigs Meets Black Hawk Down").  We wrote how the war also marked a dangerous trail from Republic to Empire ("Bush's Alderaan" and "Empire vs. Republic") and how lies had come to dominate truth in the U.S. political process ("America's Matrix" and "Bush & the End of Reason").

As Iraq's violent insurgency gained strength in mid-2003, we described the shifting rationales and the new deceptions ("Bush's New War Lies" and "France, Bush & Drunk Driving"). We looked back, too, at the history that contributed to the Iraq disaster ("Why U.S. Intelligence Failed" and "Iraq, Quicksand & Blood"). We followed Bush's scramble to justify the deepening costs and contain the growing political damage ("Bush's Iraq Getaway," "Bush's Terror Hysteria," "Iraq's Sovereignty Mirage")

In 2004, as the war continued its descent into barbarity ("Apocalypse Again," "Bush's Bloody Flip-Flop," "Bush's Death Squads"), we showed how the Washington news media was still failing to do its job ("Bush & the L-Word," "Reality on the Ballot," "Iraq Plan '03: Troops Home '04"). At times, it appeared Bush either was suffering delusions or was convinced the American people were very stupid ("Bush: Deceptive or Delusional?" "Bush the Infallible," "Bush's Unaccountability Moment").

At the start of Bush's second term in 2005, we described how the U.S. news media was again falling into line, hailing Bush as a "visionary" who supposedly was bringing the fruits of democracy to the Middle East. We offered another view ("Sinking in Deeper," "Neocon Amorality," "Bush's Neocons Unbridled").

And as the Iraq War dragged on, we reported on the gradual disclosures of the past deceptions and the slow awakening of the American public to the darker truth ("For Bush, Iraq Lies Are Fundamental," "The Answer is Fear," "President Bush, With the Candlestick..." "Bush's 'Happy Thoughts' Death Trap," "Bush Feared Looking Weak on Iraq" "So Iraq Was About the Oil").

Still, there was the problem of a mainstream media that only grudgingly acknowledged its earlier errors and tried to ignore the worsening reality ("LMSM -- the Lying Mainstream Media" and "Mocking the Downing Street Memo,") The new conventional wisdom was that Bush was finally leveling with the American people. So we suggested what such speeches would really sound like ("Bush's Alternative Speech" and "Bush's Terrifying Terror Speech.").

In the past nine months of war, we have looked to the future and at the hard choices ahead ("War or Impeachment," "Iraq & the Logic of Withdrawal," "Is Bush al-Qaeda's Useful Idiot?" "Frog-Marching Bush to the Hague"). Beyond the political options at home, there also are new danger signs in Iraq ("Bush in Iraq, Slouching Toward Genocide" and "Osama's Briar Patch").

Yet, we have not ignored Bush's new efforts to rebuild his crumbling public support -- and the new deceptions involved ("Al-Qaeda Letter Belies Bush's Iraq Claims," "Bush's Latest Iraq War Lies,"  "Is Bush Leveling with America?" "Bush & the Limits of Debate," "Is Bush Stupid, or Is America?"  "Bush, Rats & a Sinking Ship," "Bush Still Ignores Iraq Reality."

(To support our continued effort to compile a truthful account of this troubling era, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to this Web site, either by credit card or by mailing a check.)

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