Stop Calling it a "War." It's a Mercenary Occupation

The difference between World War II and the Occupation of Iraq is that WWII was a war against an unequivocal evil and the occupation of Iraq is an unprovoked act of aggression for the purpose of colonizing a country and its resources. It's a mercenary occupation that just so happens also to include actual mercenaries in larger numbers than actual accountable military soldiers and officers. WWII was necessary and morally defensible up to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and I’m of two minds about that. The Occupation of Iraq was and is neither. It's an everlasting shame, and I don't want to hear any more, ever, about how the US isn't imperialist.

Jane Smiley has written a trenchant essay about this for HuffPo. It’s a must-read, not least because it includes a brief analysis of one of the seeds of the GOP’s ultimate, inevitable destruction: Lee Atwater, a name that will live in infamy for the damage he and his direct heirs – Terry Dolan, Karl Rove, et al. – have done to politics--in fact, to competitions of all kinds in the US.