We'll Be Grinning in Heaven/When the Day of Judgment Comes...We're Going to Live for a Very Long Time

You have to wonder what the parents of a soldier who has made the ultimate sacrifice in Baghdad were thinking when they heard Dick Cheney make the following declaration on national TV regarding our little war in Iraq: "It was the right thing to do and if we had to do it over again we would do exactly the same thing."

Really?

Iraq is the midst of a civil war. The country's infrastructure is in shambles. Thousands upon thousands of people have died after major combat was declared over -- several years ago. Our nation has spent billions in borrowed money to finance the whole thing -- much of it seemingly wasted, mismanaged, or outright stolen. Iraq has become both a magnet and training ground for jihadist terrorists. Pretty much the whole world -- especially the Muslim world -- is boiling mad pissed at us. Drug lords and the Taliban practically rule Afghanistan, and, oh yes, Osama bin Laden still roams free after murdering thousands of American citizens.

Bush recently was forced to admit -- once again -- that Saddam was in no way connected to 9/11, even though his administration spent years insinuating that he was the evil mastermind behind it all. So, even though there is no connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks on 9/11, Bush makes the following declaration on the fifth anniversary of Al Qaeda's attacks on New York City and Washington, DC:

"I am often asked why we are in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the 9/11 attacks. The answer is that the regime of Saddam Hussein was a clear threat. My administration, the Congress, and the United Nations saw the threat -- and after 9/11, Saddam's regime posed a risk that the world could not afford to take. The world is safer because Saddam Hussein is no longer in power."

So what was this "clear threat" threat to our democracy and way of life? We all know that there were no stockpiles of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons in Iraq (the UN sanctions and no-fly zones had kept him in check for years). And Saddam wasn't in cahoots with Osama (they hated each other) and Al Qaeda. So where's the threat? Iraq is a huge problem now (as a result of the sheer incompetence of the Bush administration -- they have grossly mismanaged the post-Mission Accomplished 'peace'), but Iraq clearly wasn't a threat to us back then.

How can any of this make sense to any rational, sane human being?

Only if you believe if you are right because you are leading the country on a mission from God...

(Albeit, a crazy religious supreme leader with a potty mouth.)

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The synth-electro-pop band Heaven 17 appropriated its name from a ficticious band in the novel/film "A Clockwork Orange" and wrote the wonderfully wry "We're Going to Live for a Very Long Time" (which is from their "Penthouse and Pavement" album).