Some of the mainstream media and politicians are finally getting serious about the fact that Bush & Co. intended to invade Iraq before 9/11 happened, and rushed into war having tailored intelligence to fit their needs. The amazing thing to me is that this action by the Bush regime seems to be viewed in isolation, ignoring the grand dress rehearsal they had in Afghanistan. It's as if the two acts of aggression are entirely different - Afghanistan deserved it, Iraq didn't. However, no solid evidence was presented at the time that Osama bin Laden was behind 9/11 (is there any even now ?) An attack was mounted so quickly that prior preparation had to have been going on. Civilian casualties were either regarded as irrelevant, or expected with gleeful vengeance. One British politician even said that as ObL had taken 3000 American lives, the Americans were justified in killing an equal number of Afghani innocents (a statement of such psychotic moral bankruptcy as to put it beyond reasonable discussion.)
Bush & Co. noted that Americans and the world accepted the invasion of Afghanistan, the toppling of the government, and a subsequent puppet regime propped up by the US military. As any naughty child knows, if you get away with something once and it feels good, you do it again. So Bush & Co., greedy eyes (inter alia) on Iraqi oil, said America was again under attack (this time not quite yet, but imminently.) They assured us that war was a last resort, but chased out the UN weapons inspectors before they'd finished, dismissed Iraqi denials of WMD out of hand, and assembled an attack force of such size and expense that it clearly wasn't going to go home empty handed. Like a timid customer being hustled by a shady dealer to buy a wreck of a used car, few politicians had the confidence or the balls to stand up and demand, "Stop ! We need reason and solid evidence here, not just rhetoric, before you go smashing your way into yet another country."
Afghanistan set the precedent for the acceptance of bad behavior, Iraq is the result. Both as regards wars and laws, the dark side of governments has been set loose to act on the presumption of guilt without evidence being required. It only takes a few moments thought to realize the awful implications and potential ramifications of this throughout human societies, and news from around the world shows it is playing out and spreading like a cancer. The truly civilized must reassert the standards of sanity over those world leaders who have lost sight of the concepts of justice and integrity.