"....But [Bush] lies, of course, can't hurt without a complicit audience. Vichy Democrats don't help themselves or the country by abetting the pretense that this band of corrupt thugs clinging to power is Business as Usual. The timid debate over the horrors of the Iraq war won't ring true to the rest of the world until they include a war crimes tribunal, reparations to the invaded, and restructuring of the process that made the war hysteria possible. Instead, the drumbeat toward war on Iran is already ramping up--sound familiar?--without the visceral response one might expect from such a truly insane proposition, and one from which the US and the world will not recover. And the press, who would love the ratings, can be counted on to continue the Orwellian spin: Pope John Paul is mourned as a reformer and a man of progress; the Abramoff corruption scandal is a bipartisan affair; and Ariel Sharon is recast as a Man of Peace. Meanwhile, the march toward the abyss can't be overstated, and is being eased into fast forward. Bush may be an ignorant puppet, but The League of Shadows around him is neither stupid nor benign. And with control over the bloated military, they have the very real power to accelerate the world toward nuclear war and environmental devastation. Resistance begins with calling them on their lies; otherwise we risk being drawn into the flames." - - - Daniel Patrick Welch